Official Languages Committee on May 1st, 2014

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Very well.

Mr. Gourde, go ahead.

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

France Belisle, your director of communications and public relations, said that the job cuts were related to a drop in your revenues, and not to political factors.

Can you explain to us what she meant by that?

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

The cuts we announced on April 10 stemmed from a number of market-related factors.

Those factors included the loss of broadcasting rights for hockey, given the importance hockey had not only at CBC, but across our corporation. That affected CBC's programming and the way it sells advertising. Hockey also helped Radio-Canada, in the sense that many of those who advertised on CBC would usually buy advertisement across our corporation.

Add to that the wage freeze announced by Mr. Flaherty in his economic statement last November.

A whole host of factors are involved and add up to $130 million, which is further to the $390 million I mentioned in my opening statement. So, as a result of a combination of factors, we no longer have the necessary leeway to do anything other than implement the cuts you are seeing.

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC]

Some 40 years ago, when I was young, we had two television options. On the one hand, we had Radio-Canada, and on the other hand, we had TVA and also....

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

CFTM.

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC]

Over the years, Radio-Canada has become one of our preferred choices.

Today, young people in the 10 to 25 age group have so many options, which will shape their viewing habits going forward.

How will Radio-Canada attract those young viewers and maintain its ratings? If you lose the next generation of viewers, it will be difficult to remain on top in terms of ratings.

[Patricia Pleszcynska]

If I may, I will provide an example. We are perfectly aware of this transition period I was talking about earlier. On the one hand, we have a generation that is still very loyal and uses traditional platforms to consume media and entertainment content. On the other hand, we have a new generation that is increasingly using digital platforms. To an extent, that generation is completely wireless. It is referred to as the cord-cutting generation. It doesn't consume any media on traditional platforms.

I will give you a little example to show how we are trying to balance all this out and build some sort of a bridge between those two generations or realities that exist in the country.

On Tuesday, we launched a new documentary series on the radio—on the ICI Radio-Canada Première network—about the war of 1914-1918. Those are five episodes we will broadcast starting in mid-May. This is an excellent series narrated by Claude Legault. Traditionally, we would have promoted it for several weeks leading up to its premiere. What we did instead is put it on the web. That way, it is available immediately, all at once, for those who prefer to use a digital platform and who would perhaps never listen to it on the radio otherwise.

That's one of the ways we have tired to build a bridge between the generations, or rather between user types. It's more appropriate to talk about two different types of users rather than generations defined by their age, since that reality applies to people of all ages.

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC]

You have managed to broadcast the program Tout le monde en parle both on the radio and on television. That's very practical for people who have to travel on Sunday night.

Could the same approach be used for other shows? That would give Canadians more opportunities to tune in.

[Patricia Pleszcynska]

Radio is its own medium, as is television. This is working in the case of Tout le monde en parle because the show is based on conversation. That program is not based on visual content, but on conversation.

What defines the radio is the human voice, the conversation, the exchanges. That's why we decided to broadcast this program over all the others.We felt this was must-see Sunday night programming on Radio-Canada television. On Monday morning, everyone talks about it, everyone discusses what they watched the previous evening. So our strategy was to try to use this to ensure an audience. Despite all the love I have for ICI Radio-Canada Première, the network I manage, I have to admit that, if you are listening to the radio on a Sunday night, you probably have no interest in television, you are on the road or you have no access to a television set. So that was a way to provide the service to those who want to catch this not-to-be-missed programming for francophones in Canada.

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC]

I congratulate you on this initiative. Many Canadians, like myself, spend several hours a week on the road, and that's a special time to tune in to Radio-Canada's programs on the radio. I must say that I listen to that radio station a lot. They do a pretty good job. The programming is very interesting. It allows us to spend several hours on the road without feeling the weight of time, while also being informed.

[Patricia Pleszcynska]

Thank you very much.

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC]

Thank you.

[Patricia Pleszcynska]

I will pass on the compliment.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you.

The floor now belongs to Mr. Nicholls.

[Jamie Nicholls, NDP, Vaudreuil—Soulanges, QC]

Ms. Kinch, in a moment I'm going to ask you to confirm if these 10 job cuts in Quebec are the only ones that will be made, but before I do that, it being May 1, I want to note one worker in particular who is today out of a job, who is Pierre Landry.

Pierre Landry in CBC Montreal is a man who announces important cultural happenings in Montreal. He just recently won the ADISQ cultural columnist of the year award. Mr. Landry was a man who promoted francophone music to the anglophone population of Quebec, bridging the gap between the solitudes, and Mr. Landry's contributions go directly toward the mandate of promoting official languages. Anglophones in Montreal are largely employed in the cultural sector, and this cut, this loss of Mr. Landry on the airwaves, will harm our community.

I can just tell you the voice of the people, Kelly Greig, says:

Huge hugs today for @PierreLandry. An amazing reporter, mentor, deskmate and friend who I had the honour of working with on @cbcHomerun.

Nicolas Boullé states:

Sad to hear that @PierreLandry will be no longer the culture reporter of Homerun on CBC.

Emily Skahan comments:

Crushed to hear CBC terminated the BEST person they ever hired. No one cares more about the artistic integrity of Mtl than @PierreLandry.

And then there's Steve Faguy, who asks:

So who, other than Pierre Landry, is getting laid off from CBC in Quebec? I'm making a list.

I will go on:

All my thoughts go out to @PierreLandry a former colleague from @MusiquePlus whose position was cut at CBC. You did a good job, good luck!

Steve Rukavina notes:I couldn't believe this when I heard it...anyone who listens to CBC knows you are one of the best we have...these cuts hurt.

Tanya McGinnity says: WHAT? WHAT? WHAT? NO. Not pierrelandry. He's a cultural icon here in Montreal.

And Steve Rukavina continues: Just unbelievably sad to be losing dedicated, friendly, fun colleague Pierre Landry to cbccuts.

This is just to put a face.... We're talking about numbers here in committee but there are people there who have contributed to the mandate of CBC who are losing their positions today and will continue to lose across the country, and that's going to harm our community in Montreal.

I could keep going on and on with the tweets, but Ms. Kinch, can you confirm to us that these 10 cuts will be the final ones to be made to English services in Quebec?

[Shelagh Kinch]

I can't tell you how much I agree with you that Pierre Landry is a loss. This was not an easy decision to make. It did not come simply. There was a lot of discussion about it, and we were very sorry to have to end his contract. As I said, it wasn't simple.

We have a very large cultural arts unit within CBC Montreal, and we do believe in cultural and arts programming, and we will continue to fulfill that mandate. We already have, as you know, programs that do that, specifically, A Propos with Jim Corcoran and C'est la vie with Bernard St-Laurent. Those shows have not been cut. We've preserved those programs. We will continue, as I said on Homerun, to be able to provide that strong cultural content. As well, we have Brendan Kelly on Daybreak who also plays that role.

Yes, Pierre Landry is a big loss. I absolutely agree with you, but we are still committed to our mandate of providing cultural programming.

[Jamie Nicholls, NDP, Vaudreuil—Soulanges, QC]

I'm just worried. Pierre Landry was crucial in mentioning events that were going on around town for people to go and check out. So it will be a big loss.

[Shelagh Kinch]

That won't be lost.

[Jamie Nicholls, NDP, Vaudreuil—Soulanges, QC]

You mentioned that those are the cuts to be made now. Does that imply that there will be further cuts down the road beyond these 10?

[Shelagh Kinch]

You know what? I can't predict, and I'm actually going to pass that question to Hubert.

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

Mr. Nicholls, first off, I thank you for putting a face on this, because when I look at this, I look at numbers, but every morning when I wake up, I realize that we've just affected the lives of 647 people, and the administrative assistant who just lost her job is as important as Pierre. The person, the technician who lost his job, who allows a Céline or a Peter Mansbridge to be able to deliver, is as important. There are 647 stories today of people who are affected. Those are the choices we have to make. My mandate is to ensure that we have a balanced budget. Those are the choices. They come with it, and we have to balance—and I think Shelagh's comment is important—whether we are still going to be able to meet the mandate and deliver and tell you what's going on in Montreal, and, if the answer is yes, how we are going to do this differently. That's the answer to your question.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Daniel.

[Joe Daniel, Conservative, Don Valley East, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, witnesses, again.

Following on from my previous discussions, how do your workforce costs compare with those of some of the other broadcasters?

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

That's a difficult question, because the other broadcasters don't have to put up any numbers. It's so integrated that I don't know what the costs of the workforce at, for example, CTV or Global are. So I can't answer that question except by guessing, and I'm not going to guess.

[Joe Daniel, Conservative, Don Valley East, ON]

No problem.

During your last appearance in front of this committee back in January of 2013, you spoke about the activities that the CBC would undertake for the 150th anniversary of Canada. Can you give us an update on these activities and where you're going with that?