Official Languages Committee on March 21st, 2016

[Catherine Cano]

That's right. We could lose our licence if we do not achieve those objectives. That is a minimum, and we could obviously do more. Our original French programming already accounts for one third of the total, which is more than the established 25%.

We are governed by the CRTC licence, but also by agreements that we have entered into with the House of Commons.

[René Arseneault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

To summarize, what does the CRTC require in order for CPAC to stay on the air?

[Catherine Cano]

With respect to French?

[René Arseneault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

I am referring to your licence in general, whether it is the French or English component.

[Catherine Cano]

All right. That is a broader question and it will take me a little longer to answer.

First, we must broadcast all proceedings of the House of Commons and its committees, as well as those of the Senate. The House of Commons' proceedings begin at 10 in the morning, most of the time. That is the priority. As a broadcaster, we cannot broadcast other news or content as long as the House is sitting. That is a challenge for us. We adapt our programming every day based on the sitting hours of the House of Commons. We only know a few hours in advance when the House will adjourn its debates.

When the House is not sitting, we fulfill the other requirements or criteria of our licence. We have to broadcast eight hours of House of Commons' committees each week. Our intent is to subsequently broadcast all committee meetings. There are only so many hours in a week and we do not have to broadcast all committee meetings. We broadcast only the meetings approved by the House of Commons for broadcast. We do not decide whether they will be televised; that is up to the clerks and the chairs of the House of Commons' committees.

This also applies to Senate committees. We have to broadcast 24 hours of committee meetings, and the remainder are broadcast afterwards.

There is access to two portals on our website: one is exclusively for the House of Commons and the other is for the Senate. You can find all committee proceedings that are televised, either live or on demand.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you, Ms. Cano.

Mr. Nater, you have two minutes.

[John Nater, Conservative, Perth—Wellington, ON]

I have a couple of questions. I'll ask them together and let you answer them.

First, you mentioned you were the only station to carry all the leaders' debates in the most recent election. I thank you for that. Can you give me some idea of the viewership of those leaders' debates? Certainly, it's the first time we've had five in different formats. Could I get some idea of the viewership on CPAC of the leaders' debates?

Second, regarding the original content in the non-House of Commons procedures, you're certainly beholden to the House of Commons schedule. Is the original content, such as PrimeTime Politics, available on demand even when the House of Commons has gone over time? Can you access that at the regular time instead of having it pushed back because the House of Commons is sitting later? Is that available on demand or is it simply a live version?

[Catherine Cano]

I'm going to ask you to repeat the last part of the question, because I've tried to remember everything.

As for the debates, their ratings, I don't have them with me, but I can forward you what we have. We were asked after the first one. It really depends, but it was quite good. But it was new for CPAC to be working nationally like this, and I think in the next round it would be more known. It was in the hundreds of thousands, but I don't have the number with me.

As to your second question, you want to know how much original programming we do other than the.... Is that right?

[John Nater, Conservative, Perth—Wellington, ON]

No, basically, when you're required to cover gavel to gavel—

[Catherine Cano]

Yes.

[John Nater, Conservative, Perth—Wellington, ON]

—and often.... For example, tonight we have 12 votes at the end of the sitting day so potentially your programming could be pushed. For your original content that would get pushed on regular television, is it live on the iPad app or online beyond that?

[Catherine Cano]

That's a very good question. In fact, we actually produce 38 hours of original content per week, and you're right, sometimes it gets pushed when the House sits late. Our goal, but it's not happening now, is.... It is online eventually, but not necessarily online at the same time. For instance, we have a show called Scrums at seven o'clock normally, but more often than not we don't have it on television because the House is still sitting. It does air later on that night, but our goal is to put it on the web at seven, because if it's not available on TV, it doesn't mean it's not available. We do it anyway. For us it's content that we should absolutely take advantage of with our other platforms because it has already been produced. That way people who would like to listen to it at seven will have it somewhere at that point.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you very much, Ms. Cano.

[Catherine Cano]

Can I just add one thing?

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Go ahead.

[Catherine Cano]

I just wanted to answer Mr. Généreux.

On the website, you have the floor audio option, where you do not hear the simultaneous interpretation. Unfortunately, it is only available on the website, but at least it is available. All television content is broadcast live on the Internet.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you very much, Ms. Cano.

I would also like to thank Mr. Fortune for being here.

I would like to mention to committee members that Ms. Cano began her career here, in Parliament, as a page.

Congratulations. Thank you very much for appearing before us. It was very interesting.

We will suspend our meeting for about five minutes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

We are resuming our meeting.

Mr. Arseneault, you have the floor.

[René Arseneault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

I am replacing the member who moved the motion.

We are studying the motion, right?

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

We are getting to it.

Yes, Ms. Lapointe?

[Linda Lapointe, Liberal, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

Mr. Chair, we need to discuss some things. Could we go in camera for five minutes?

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

We can go in camera for the time it takes to discuss the travel budget.

[Linda Lapointe, Liberal, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

Yes, that's it.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Is it agreed?

[members]

Agreed.