Canadian Heritage Committee on March 1st, 2007

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Abbotsford, BC]

Thank you.

I have a second question. Is it safe to assume that the CBC doesn't operate on a level playing field vis-à-vis the private broadcasters, in terms of some of the restrictions that we've imposed on it regarding again reflecting the face of Canadian diversity?

[Jean-Pierre Blais]

That's a value judgment I'm trying to avoid. Certainly all broadcasters have a duty to reflect the diversity of Canada. By “diversity”, I include ethnocultural diversity, linguistic diversity, aboriginal diversity, and regional diversity, because they're all part of the picture.

Private broadcasters will say that their key strength is their proximité, their closeness to their audiences, particularly in radio. In private radio, that's the point. But others would say that's also the role of the public broadcaster, with a different sort of programming. Maybe radio is the clearest place where there is definitely a distinct voice, particularly in English markets, between the private and the public. There's good complementarity there. Television is a bit more of a challenge.

As I said earlier, in the French market—but I also think it's true everywhere—the presence of having that mixed system brings in not an economic competition, but a reality competition. They each want to improve because they need to connect with their audiences. Certainly when services like Bravo! and Book Television came online within the CHUM group, that had an effect on the CBC. The CBC said that was their traditional niche, so they had to look at how they could do that sort of content even better. So there is some dynamic healthiness to having the two communities of players, the public and the private, mixing together like that and improving each other.

I don't know. Does the CBC have more to do on regional and local? I think all broadcasters have a duty to reflect local news and regional news. That's why we have a Canadian system.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Scott.

[Andy Scott, Liberal, Fredericton, NB]

Thank you very much.

Just for information, it would be extremely helpful to us if we could get a page on funding over time. Because it's a public broadcaster, the government would make decisions from time to time on that. To some extent, it has had both an expansive and a constrictive effect in terms of the public broadcaster, so I'd be very interested.

I'm not sure of the relationship between the department and the ministry and the CBC in the context of some of the broader issues. I understand that with the more specific issues, the arm's-length nature is critical, but on the broader....

For instance, I'd be very curious as to whether or not the department has a sense of what “regions” means. I think we all have an inherent understanding of the word, but I don't think it's necessarily a word that has shared meaning. Consequently, I'm sure in Ottawa, Fredericton and Halifax would be presumed to be in the same region, but you can't go back to Fredericton and Halifax and convince anybody of that. So I would be interested in how you see “regional” working, although I know you're trying to avoid value judgments.

[Jean-Pierre Blais]

No, you're absolutely right. Everybody has a different way of defining “regions”. That's why the word “region”, in a sense, has been defined almost as “local” in radio for the CBC. When they have a local television station and the mandate is regional, obviously that means one thing.

We don't have a clear definition, but you're absolutely right. There are different ways of getting to it. In terms of my own experience, I used to live in Montreal and I now live in the Outaouais. Certainly, when I look at all broadcasters that broadcast out of Montreal, I feel very much in a region, and not as served. We all have lived that reality.

We don't have a definition. I would suggest, in fact, that the word “region” in section 3 of the Broadcasting Act was a clever constructive ambiguity that allowed that definition to have a flexible meaning over time, through licensing decisions by the CRTC.

[Andy Scott, Liberal, Fredericton, NB]

More broadly, and just bigger than the CBC in this case or the public broadcaster in this case, but in terms of the department, it is quite fascinating. Opportunity exists in the context of all of the inputs that would be available to the Government of Canada in terms of telling stories, given the access to the kinds of venues that are now available and would have been unheard of a very short time ago. What actions has the department taken that would be more horizontal than simply the CBC, to address that, if at all?

[Jean-Pierre Blais]

When I mentioned earlier that we had five strategic objectives in the cultural affairs sector, one of them is reflecting our diversity, which includes regional diversity. So the vast majority.... I don't want to say all, because I'm not sure of every single one, but all of them have a regional component. For instance, our book publishing component and our magazine component helps regional development.

[Andy Scott, Liberal, Fredericton, NB]

Forgive me, I don't mean to interrupt, but I don't have very much time.

I was thinking more about how the department would be responding to the issue that you raised earlier, I think in response to Mr. Angus, that it wasn't just about broadcasting in terms of all the inputs, all the content. You referenced archives, for instance. What has been done by the ministry, if anything, to explore the possibilities that are available because of technology, to make all those wonderful assets more available to Canadians?

[Jean-Pierre Blais]

Certainly the virtual museum—I'll give that as an example—is one where we help local museums or collections put themselves in digitalized form to make available to the world a collection that would never have the legs to travel more broadly. In fact, a small museum in a particular community can take their collection, with the help of the department, and digitalize it and make it available more broadly. That's one example of the content.

[Andy Scott, Liberal, Fredericton, NB]

Is there anything by way of a broader strategy? That would inform this discussion very much.

[Jean-Pierre Blais]

It's not a defined strategy but it's a constant preoccupation in the sense that it's there, everywhere. We don't say, okay, what are we doing for regions today, as a title, but every program, as they're delivered through their terms and conditions, has a regional component.

[Andy Scott, Liberal, Fredericton, NB]

I wasn't as much concerned about the regions in this line of questioning as I'm interested in how we can take a lead in terms of these new technologies as a small country with a huge challenge: big space and small numbers. It strikes me that we probably would be inclined to do this first and best on the planet because of the nature of our country, so I was just curious about that.

[Jean-Pierre Blais]

Perhaps we can explain in more detail the Canadian culture online strategy, which in fact has several components of that nature, and provide that to the committee. But I think it gets precisely to those sorts of issues.

[Andy Scott, Liberal, Fredericton, NB]

I'm trying to be polite, Mr. Chair. Am I eating into somebody else's time?

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Yes, you are, a little. Thank you.

Mr. Kotto.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

"Inform, enlighten, entertain" is the slogan used to define Radio-Canada's mandate. Who coined this slogan and which year?

[Jean-Pierre Blais]

If we look at the legislative history, it seems to have been inspired by the act which created the BBC.

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

In which year?

[Jean-Pierre Blais]

During the 1930s or 1940s.

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

From time to time, do you at the department receive complaints from Canadians concerning the CBC/Radio-Canada? If so, are these complaints archived? If so, is it possible to receive a concise compilation of some of the most common complaints?

[Jean-Pierre Blais]

From time to time, we do receive complaints, and there is a mechanism by which we process these complaints internally at Radio-Canada. When we receive complaints, they go through this system.

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

Okay.

[Jean-Pierre Blais]

For example, if a viewer would lodge a complaint, normal practice is to send in a complaint, and ask for a reply from management. If the complainant is dissatisfied, the complaint is generally sent to the ombudsman for either the French-speaking section or English-speaking section. Sometimes complaints are studied depending on their complexity, by the CRTC. Perhaps the CRTC would be better positioned to provide you an index of the types of complaints received by both English and French ombudsmen.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Thank you.

Mr. Warkentin.

[Chris Warkentin, Conservative, Peace River, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you very much for coming here today and explaining some of this to us. We have probably more questions than we have time to get answers, and obviously there will be other people who will want to talk to you about it. I would like to get into the threat of new media technologies. We'll get there soon, but I just want to ask a question.

I guess I would assert and begin my question with a statement—that is, that the value of a public broadcaster is in how many people actually take it in, how many people view it.

Maybe it's not even the department's responsibility, but I'm wondering if the department has looked into ways the CBC might be able to start to key in on niche markets where Canadians as a whole would be interested in the CBC. I'm thinking of if the CBC became the foremost authority on whatever, be it the weather or whatever, something that would draw people, general Canadians, to that, especially in this universe of a million-channel universe, specifically on the television side but certainly on the radio side as well. I'm wondering if the department knows of any initiatives such as that where we would key in on a niche type of thing that would draw all Canadians to the broadcaster for one reason or another.