Evidence of meeting #42 for Canadian Heritage in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was cbc.
A recording is available from Parliament.
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Conservative
James Moore Conservative Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC
As I understand it, the process for using those clips was vetted through a legal process that was not dissimilar to a legal process that we've used for any other of our party advertising and that it was approved ahead of time. If you have questions about our party's advertising, you're more than free to invite the members of the Conservative--
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Liberal
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Conservative
The Chair Conservative Michael Chong
Okay.
Thank you very much, Minister.
Just to clarify, for the record, Madam Crombie, the three organizations that have been invited to appear for our third hearing on CBC/Radio-Canada are: L'Alliance de la francophonie de Timmins; Association canadienne-française de l’Ontario, région Temiskaming; and Friends of Canadian Broadcasting.
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Liberal
Bonnie Crombie Liberal Mississauga—Streetsville, ON
Well, then, it's a good thing I got it in today.
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Bloc
Carole Lavallée Bloc Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC
I want to come back to the fact that the Conservative government is very hostile to the CBC. In fact, we sense that in various ways. Minister, you have never been heard to distance yourself from criticism voiced or the various directions people want to give the CBC. For example, your parliamentary secretary said—in his personal capacity, but he said it nonetheless—that we should privatize the CBC. We have never heard you yourself, Minister, say that you didn't want...
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Conservative
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Conservative
Dean Del Mastro Conservative Peterborough, ON
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
The member is actually making statements, implying through her statements quotes that she claims I have made. I made no such quotes. In fact, what I indicated prior to what I was saying, Mr. Chairman, was that it did not reflect the position of government. I encourage her to read the entire quote, because what she's actually doing, Mr. Chairman, is misrepresenting me before this committee, before the body, and I think it's entirely inappropriate.
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Conservative
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Conservative
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Conservative
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Conservative
The Chair Conservative Michael Chong
Mr. Del Mastro, thank you.
It's not a point of order. Members are free to express themselves on this committee. This committee is subject to the same immunity that members in the House have; however, I'd ask that members make sure their statements are accurate, that quotes attributed to other members are accurate, and that members not use this as a forum to attack other members. I'd like members of the committee to self-police themselves in this regard.
I'll give the floor back to Madame Lavallée.
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Bloc
Carole Lavallée Bloc Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC
Mr. Del Mastro said this: "... but do you think it's time that the Canadian government looks at it and says maybe it's time we get out of the broadcasting business and get into investing more money into content?" That is a quotation from November 23 at the Canadian Heritage Committee. That is from your parliamentary secretary, Mr. Moore. We have never heard you distance yourself clearly from that statement by your parliamentary secretary. Nor have we ever heard you say clearly that you supported the CBC and you would defend it to your caucus. We have never heard you say that.
Could we hear you say it today? You are sitting down and you have an excellent forum; the people are listening to you and drinking in your words. Could you tell us that you have confidence in the CBC and you support the CBC and its present mandate?
4:15 p.m.
Conservative
James Moore Conservative Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC
As I have said several times, the CBC, throughout Canada, is an absolutely essential institution for the cultural industry in Canada. This organization, whose mandate is unparalleled, has a responsibility to bring Canadians together, to represent both official languages of Canada in every part of the country, and to broadcast in Northern Canada in eight Aboriginal languages. It has an enormous and difficult mandate, and it is a very difficult organization to lead in an economic crisis such as we have just experienced. That is why I said I had full confidence in Hubert Lacroix and his team. I have confidence in every decision they make for the CBC, and what they do with the money they receive for their mandate, which is to represent the interests of Canadians.
I also spoke here about the very recent appointment of Ms. Stuart. She has spoken publicly about getting moving and making changes to the CBC's programming to try to have more Canadian content. That is very important, Less JEOPARDY!, less Wheel of Fortune, and more Canadian content, those are things...
You're asking me to say positive things. I always say...
What I'm not going to get into, ma collègue--I've said it in French and I'll say it in English now. I don't want to, frankly, come to a committee and comment on his comments about those comments. I'm not here to play that game. I'm here to have a conversation about CBC/Radio-Canada and what its mandate is and how they're fulfilling it for Canadians. I'm here to tell you that as the minister responsible on behalf of Prime Minister Harper, I have confidence in Hubert Lacroix and his team and what they have done through the difficulties they've had because of the recession. We've done good work together. There will be more challenges in the future.