Canadian Heritage Committee on Feb. 27th, 2007

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Ms. Minna.

[Maria Minna, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

I want to respond to what the honourable member just said.

I think most of us, if not all of us, have worked in private, semi-private, or public institutions. I can assure you that there are ways of keeping certain documents confidential. But this is not just a private company. This is a public institution, accountable to the people of Canada, and therefore it has a responsibility to be open and transparent. Therefore, while I'm sure it can hold public hearings in this country while at the same time dealing with the in camera problem or certain other aspects, there ought to be public hearings. This is not a private company; this is an organization responsible to the Canadian people.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Thank you.

Mr. Angus.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

To follow up on what has been discussed, the other day when we were with Mr. von Finckenstein I raised with him a number of times that it is highly unusual for the CRTC to announce a task force of this nature and say it's going to be behind closed doors.

The CRTC deals with broad issues of commercial competition all the time, and it is done behind closed doors and is done protecting the various competing bids. This is what they do. What is concerning me, and I find it unusual, is that there are numerous elements of this piece of the pie. It's not just two companies competing for a licence; it's restructuring a public-private partnership that has numerous players who have to speak to it.

At the end of the day, it's not in the public interest for us as parliamentarians to give over what is a creation of Parliament to the CRTC to have closed-door hearings and come back and say, this is what we've decided, but we're not going to be able to tell you how we decided, because it was all behind closed doors. It has to come back to Parliament for the final say. Whether it comes back through the heritage committee or through another process, it has to come back to us, because this is our creation.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Mr. Kotto, you're okay?

[Maka Kotto, Bloc, Saint-Lambert, QC]

I would like to add something, Mr. Chairman.

I said at the beginning of the meeting that since March 1, 2006, Telefilm has been in charge of administering applications to the Canadian Television Fund. In my opinion, it should be part of the Task Force. I wanted to suggest to Mr. Angus that Telefilm be included in his recommendation 8.

I realize that it may be difficult for industry players to speak publicly about their financial circumstances. Perhaps we could set aside that part of it, but the rest of our discussions on the mandate of the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission, which is to facilitate the production of high-quality Canadian programming, should be public. So, I have great reservations in that regard.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Mr. Fast.

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Abbotsford, BC]

Well, Mr. Chair, I think it's unfortunate that we're using the words “closed-door hearings”, because in fact the task force isn't really a hearing per se; it's a group of individuals who are tasked with doing fact-finding. How they do that, especially when it's on an informal basis, is up to the task force to decide. I've been involved in a number of task forces over the years. Those have never been public hearings per se; they have been fact-finding missions.

I just want to counter something Mr. Angus said. He suggested that the task force will then “decide”. I didn't hear Mr. von Finckenstein say “decide”. In fact, the role of a task force is to report.

As you know, Mr. Angus, Mr. von Finckenstein made a commitment that the report of the task force—not the decision, the report of the task force—will be made public. This committee will receive that report. At that point in time, we, as a committee, can determine whether we perhaps want to hold our own public hearings on that task force report. The minister can decide to hold her own hearings. But to suggest now that somehow this is a conspiracy of silence to try to hide information that the task force is going to ferret out is highly irresponsible.

Let's give Mr. von Finckenstein the benefit of the doubt and assume that he's moving forward in good faith. We have no evidence to the contrary. Let's give him an opportunity to do the fact-finding, to prepare his report, which will then be presented to this committee. At that point in time we will have an opportunity to hold public hearings if we believe that's necessary. At the same time, that report is going to the minister as well. The minister may take some action, the CRTC may take some action, based on that report, but the task force itself is not a body that will make the decision.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Mr. Angus.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Thank you.

I can understand that Mr. Fast is very concerned about this. I don't think anybody ever said “conspiracy of silence” around this table, so I don't know, maybe his translation needs to be fixed. I think the recommendation is very clear—

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Abbotsford, BC]

The recommendation suggested—

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

It is to lay out exactly, because we have a number of interests who've stepped up to the plate, that at the end of the day the Canadian Television Fund is a creature of Heritage. The CRTC has a role to play in terms of the financial payments that are due to the CTF through the CRTC, but it's not their creation. This is simply laying out the ground as we see it. We are not prejudging the work of the CRTC. We're not telling them to cease and desist. We're not telling them to do it our way. They can carry this out, but it has to come back to Heritage.

It's very simple and straightforward, so I'd like to call the question.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Okay, I'll call the question on recommendation 8.

(Motion agreed to)

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

We'll carry on, then. We can't vote on the interim report yet, so we'll set that aside.

When it comes to committee business, we have the order in council appointment of Mr. Konrad von Finckenstein as chair of the CRTC. The order in council appointment has been referred to the committee. We have a possibility for Thursday, March 1, 2007, to interview Mr. von Finckenstein—and before him, the officials of the department on CBC's mandate review.

Would everyone be agreeable to that?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Mr. Scott.

[Andy Scott, Liberal, Fredericton, NB]

Mr. Chairman, just for clarification, on Thursday we have two hours?

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

We have three hours on Thursday.

[Andy Scott, Liberal, Fredericton, NB]

Oh, good. Thanks.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

We meet on Thursday from nine o'clock in the morning until noon.

There is another note that's been put before me, on the CBC's local radio advertisement of the committee's public hearings in remote areas. Is it agreed that the committee ask CBC management to make public announcements on local radio in remote areas, for example Yellowknife, for the upcoming public hearings of the committee?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Great, thank you. It's carried.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

On televising committee meetings, is it agreed that in relation to the study on the role for a public broadcaster in the 21st century, the meetings of the committee in Ottawa be televised whenever possible?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

We will move to Mr. Kotto's motion, which has been redrafted.