Canadian Heritage Committee on May 25th, 2007

[Marquise Lepage]

No, but I am answering you very seriously that, if that balance were already respected, perhaps it would cost less.

[Monique Simard]

First, you have to see how that was accounted for. I wasn't here when that was presented. What types of programs were involved? What was counted or not?

[Francis Scarpaleggia, Liberal, Lac-Saint-Louis, QC]

We were talking about Virginie. They said that, when Virginie was produced by an independent producer that had used the same studio and the same actors, it cost 25% more than when the program had been produced in house.

[Monique Simard]

We would have to check. But once again, once it's produced outside, there is a certain amount of financing that comes from the outside which is not internal funding. So, in the final accounting, it may cost the Crown corporation less.

[Francis Scarpaleggia, Liberal, Lac-Saint-Louis, QC]

But do you think more productions should be done outside? Others have come and told us that more should be done in house.

[Monique Simard]

I think that we currently have a mixed system. Virtually no more dramatic productions are done in house. There is one, I believe, at Radio-Canada. I'm not talking about the CBC, but rather Radio-Canada. In documentaries, they're done outside exclusively. So there is currently a balance that I think is suitable and that was enriching, incidentally. Radio-Canada also has its ranks of extremely competent people who provide and who make, for example, a number of excellent, well-known public affairs programs. If you consult Input, every year, you'll see Radio-Canada programs.

[Francis Scarpaleggia, Liberal, Lac-Saint-Louis, QC]

On the gender equality issue, what is important is that everyone is well represented in the decision-making bodies. Earlier we were talking about perhaps requiring that half of the board of directors consist of women. In the decision-making bodies at Radio-Canada and the CBC now, what are you able to observe? We went to Toronto and met two high-level officials there, one from radio, the other from television. Both were women whose names I do not remember. What do you see?

[Marquise Lepage]

That's very good, and I'm not opposed to parity on boards of directors or cabinets. On the contrary, I wholeheartedly applaud that. However, people often forget to require a 50% split in public funding for creation. That ultimately might be understood in a private business, but, when you do a quick analysis of TVA, you see that TVA was more advanced than Radio-Canada in that respect. How is it that a private business, whose purpose is to make money, is more representative of our society than our state television network, which is funded by everyone?

[Francis Scarpaleggia, Liberal, Lac-Saint-Louis, QC]

You're talking about directors?

[Marquise Lepage]

Directors, yes. Yes, there have to be people of both genders at the head, but everyone lives in the same world. I nearly fell off my chair when I saw those figures, and that is why I have become partly militant. I have been working for 20 years, and I have so many contracts that I can hardly breathe between two films, and I naively had the impression that everything had been resolved. When I saw that, I said to myself: “Oh my God!” When I attended a meeting where I saw extraordinary women, talented women who had not made a film for four or five years, I said to myself there was a problem. How is it that, in our society, we have the luxury to waste that talent?

[Francis Scarpaleggia, Liberal, Lac-Saint-Louis, QC]

You're saying that you find more opportunities for women in the private sector.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

We have one minute left.

[Marquise Lepage]

As you said, Radio-Canada triggers everything that happens in the private sector. There is no private industry in Canada.

[Francis Scarpaleggia, Liberal, Lac-Saint-Louis, QC]

There is TVA and there is—

[Marquise Lepage]

Yes, but TVA will also take money out of our pockets, from the Canadian Television Fund. There's SODEC as well.

[Isabelle Hayeur, Member, Réalisatrices équitables]

Here's how things work. To get money from SODEC and Telefilm Canada to do a feature film, you first have to go and see the television stations and request a pre-purchase or a licence. If Radio-Canada doesn't give us that licence, we have very little chance of getting financing for a feature film.

[Francis Scarpaleggia, Liberal, Lac-Saint-Louis, QC]

Are you saying that you have greater success with the private networks like TVA and CTV?

[Marquise Lepage]

No, no.

[Isabelle Hayeur]

No, but there are works by women directors in their programming schedule. Radio-Canada is more or less the only one that buys feature films, because the private sector is somewhat withdrawing from that. That is why it is important that that be done through in-house production and in what we call the “private sector” in Canada, particularly in Quebec, because that's what we know best.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Okay, I have to apologize; it seems this particular session could go on for probably another hour or so, but we are limited to our time.

I thank you again for your presentations and your answers.

[Marquise Lepage]

At what time do you finish? We could meet later.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

I have to get home sometime.

We're going to recess for a couple of minutes.

Again, thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Welcome back to our next presentation.

This is the 64th meeting of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), a full investigation of the role of a public broadcaster in the 21st century.

I welcome our next presenters.

I have been asked, and I would also ask that we try to keep our presentations as short as we can at the start so that we have opportunities to ask questions. We can go a little longer on them. If we could stay in the neighbourhood of eight to ten minutes, it would be great.

In this session we have CKRT-TV, Radio Nord Communications, and Coalition pour la radiotélévision publique francophone.

From CKRT-TV, Mr. Simard, are you the presenter, sir?

[Marc Simard, President, CKRT-TV]

Yes.