Canadian Heritage Committee on April 17th, 2007

[Peter Murdoch]

I don't think it is, but it's a personal decision. I've looked at some of the decisions they've made.

The one I was talking about on the news-hour show I thought was just abysmal. Given the damage it did, I think heads would have rolled in the private sector. We've had an abysmal labour relations atmosphere at the CBC, and it's much worse than at the private sector. The strike, the lockout, was completely unnecessary, in my view.

There are a number of things I could point to.

[Gord Brown, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville, ON]

Your final comment was about the governance of the CBC and its suitability to ensure the mandate is carried out. Do you think there should be a change in the governance? I guess that's my last question.

[Peter Murdoch]

Yes, I do. I think the sense now--and it's more a sense of reality--is that it is too tied to patronage. I'd like to see that the best and the brightest get appointed to the board in a process that is transparent, and then, once that board is appointed, see that we give it the authority to run the corporation, which means the authority to hire and fire its CEO and president.

[Gord Brown, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Thank you.

Maybe we haven't got time for another whole round of questions, but I do have a question. It's something I want to have put on the record.

When Mr. Richard Stursberg from the CBC was here, he said the CBC offered independent producers a deal whereby the corporation would put content online and divide any revenues that came as a result 50-50. The offer was not accepted. Why have the independent producers and the CBC not been able to reach an agreement on this? When will the CBC and independent producers reach an agreement to put content online?

Again, as we've gone around the country and met with different witnesses, we've seen that new media are very important. We do know that analog's days in television are numbered, but in broadband and stuff we've only scratched the tip of the iceberg. If there was somewhere to step forward and the CBC was trying to work with independent producers, why didn't independent producers accept an offer like that?

[Peter Murdoch]

I don't know. If I were you, I would certainly ask ACTRA. I think they are up next. They probably are closer to the independent production community.

I would say that they need guidance, in some ways, from the CRTC. The CRTC has almost washed its hands of the Internet, and that's part of the problem. Our federal regulator has not put its mind or its regulatory office to work here; it's kind of backed off, so we have a kind of laissez-faire environment.

I'd be guessing about why it didn't work out. From a long experience in collective bargaining, I'd say it can be anything from not liking the person to some really significant and substantial issues about not knowing what that environment is going to look like and feeling very nervous about signing on now. I don't want to try to guess. I think there are other people who are going to appear before you who have more knowledge about it than I do. I'm sorry I can't help you out.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Okay. Thank you very much. I appreciate your presentation here this morning.

We're going to recess for five minutes.

[Peter Murdoch]

I'd like to thank the committee.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Welcome back. We'll reconvene and welcome our next witnesses. From the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists, ACTRA, we have Richard Hardacre, Stephen Waddell, Raoul Bhaneja, and Arlene Duncan. Welcome.

Richard, are you going to make the presentation?

Please proceed.

[Richard Hardacre, National President, Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists]

Thank you, Mr. Schellenberger.

Good morning to everybody.

My name is Richard Hardacre, like an acre of land.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Hardacre. An acre of land, okay.

[Richard Hardacre]

It's a very old name. My family came from pretty tough.... It's apparently a 400-year-old name, from Yorkshire, in Angleterre.

Good morning, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. As I said already, my name is.... And you've heard it. I am the national president of ACTRA, but importantly, to me, I believe, I'm a Canadian actor.

Joining me today are Arlene Duncan and Raoul Bhaneja, two busy Canadian performers, members of ACTRA who have devoted major periods of their careers to the CBC. And as our national director is ill today, with us is ACTRA's director of public policy, Mr. Ken Thompson. We really sincerely thank you and the committee for having us here for the opportunity to speak to you.

I have an introductory couple of words about ACTRA. You may have heard about us in the news lately. We had the first strike in our 64-year history, unfortunately, and we solved it after six weeks.

ACTRA is the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists, a national organization of professional performers working in the English language recorded media. We represent the interests of over 21,000 members across Canada, and we are the foundation of Canada's highly acclaimed professional performing community, in the English language at least. Our members, like the three of us, are self-employed. We're professional performers. As self-employed creative artists, we believe we have a vital stake in the future of Canada's culture.

ACTRA's members believe that there must be a strong Canadian voice wherever and whenever entertainment and information products and services are created and distributed to Canadians. We believe passionately in the creativity of our craft and our industry. We're confident that our fellow artists have all the skills to tell and perform our own stories, and that's why it's very important for us to be here today in this public process, a process that we give a great deal of credence to, to share our advice with you and the committee on the future of the CBC.

Of course, we also recognize the role of the Société Radio-Canada in respect of its French language programming. However, we know that this committee is certainly going to hear, if it has not already, from the Union des artistes, our sister organization, which represents film, television, media, and stage performers in the French language in Canada. So we'll keep our comments today focused on the English language services provided by the CBC.

We wish to make four points, if we may.

Number one, we believe the current mandate of the CBC should be maintained.

Number two, the CBC should dedicate more of its programming content to dramatic production, particularly dramatic production for prime time viewing.

We believe that the annual parliamentary allocation for the CBC should be increased to permit the public broadcaster to properly fulfill its mandate, and as an ancillary point not specifically directed only to the CBC, we believe the exemption order for new media determined by the CRTC should be revoked. We believe the Canadian content requirements should be placed on new media. We'll expand on each of these points, and we look forward to your questions.

I'd like to turn now to my colleague, Ms. Duncan, who will tell you why ACTRA supports the present mandate of the CBC.

[Arlene Duncan, Member, Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists]

Thank you, Richard.

ACTRA has always supported the CBC, Canada's national public broadcaster. Our union's history is inextricably linked to the CBC. The first Canadian recorded media performers union, a predecessor to ACTRA, was created at CBC Radio in the mid-1940s. The relationship between ACTRA and the CBC is symbiotic in many respects, since together we are fundamental to the creation and development of a pool of professional performers. While the role of the CBC in the professional life of Canada's performers has changed over the years, the CBC remains a vital part of Canada's broadcasting milieu. The CBC must remain the primary television destination for Canadians, a place where Canadians can see our own stories and watch those of the world unfold from our own distinct perspective.

We applauded the CBC for Canadianizing its prime time schedule in the mid-1990s, which laid the basis for the creation of a true alternative to the private broadcasters, both Canadian and foreign. The CBC's increased reliance on obtaining productions from Canada's independent production community represents the best form of cooperation between the public and private sectors. To be an effective alternative to private broadcasting, the CBC must not only present the current reality of Canada, it must challenge us to reflect on our history and to think boldly about our future.

Only a public agency can afford to take the risks inherent in producing distinctively Canadian programming. We believe many Canadians share our view, and we believe it is the role of the government to give the CBC the resources necessary to take these risks. As a consequence, ACTRA urges the committee to recommend that CBC's existing mandate be maintained and that the annual parliamentary appropriation for the CBC be increased to give it the resources to effectively implement its mandate.

The CBC has a key role in addressing the continuing and critical situation of the scarcity of Canadian drama on our screens, and it must be encouraged to do just that. The CBC has been responsible for many of Canada's most provocative miniseries and best-known drama series. Trudeau, Da Vinci's Inquest, Canada: A People's History, Shattered City, Human Cargo, The Last Chapter, and This is Wonderland all come to mind, as well as comedies like The Newsroom, This Hour Has 22 Minutes, The Rick Mercer Report, and, of course, Little Mosque On the Prairie.

[Richard Hardacre]

Ms. Duncan says, “of course, Little Mosque On the Prairie” as she has a featured continuing role, a starring role, in Little Mosque on the Prairie, one of the new programs that CBC is having great success with.

CBC has an ongoing tradition of commissioning dramatic adaptations of Canadian literary and theatrical works. Examples are Margaret Atwood's The Robber Bride, Guy Vanderhaeghe's The Englishman's Boy, and St. Urbain's Horseman, Mordecai Richler's tale of immigrants enriching the social fabric of Montreal in the early part of the 20th century. All have recently or soon will have been aired on the CBC. My point is that it's quite unlikely that any of those stories, any future Canadian stories, could be brought to life on television screens in this country were it not for the CBC. CBC's drama programs have endeavoured to be on the cutting edge, and we believe that Canadians want the choice of challenging programs--a wonderful alternative to what we could call “homogenized products”, which are beamed into this country from the United States.

We think the CBC should be not as obsessed with audience ratings as they are stressed by some of their most senior management. The aims of a public broadcaster, in our opinion, should never be dictated, to a large degree, by whatever sells--high-fibre cereal or lottery tickets. While we do not believe the CBC alone has a responsibility to pay for and schedule Canadian English language dramas, we believe it certainly has a greater responsibility to do so. Over the past seven years, CBC's level of financial support for Canadian drama has generally been about the same as that of the private sector. In the spring of 2005, the CBC announced that in addition to its traditional support, it did intend to invest an additional $33.5 million in Canadian drama in the next two years, which, one hopes, could have added 100 more hours of dramatic programming to the CBC's schedule in 2006 and 2007. We want to see the broadcaster be able to do that and to do more.

The CBC also stated that its goal was to double the amount of drama and entertainment programming broadcast on its main network. ACTRA really believes that CBC television, if adequately resourced, could set the bar in the broadcasting of drama, the kind of bar that Mr. Murdoch spoke to us about earlier today, a benchmark that should be matched by the private Canadian broadcasting networks.

[Raoul Bhaneja, Member, Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists]

Thank you, Richard.

For the CBC to play an important role in the area of Canadian programming, as we've said, it must be adequately funded, but it's been steadily constricted by a series of reductions to budgets stretching back through a string of different federal governments. Parliamentary appropriations for the CBC have declined by 29%, in real terms, since 1990. Based on data from CBC's annual reports from 2002 through 2005, government funding is $415 million less today than in 1990, and that's measured in 2004 dollars.

The current level of public funding for CBC is simply insufficient given its broad mandate and its obligation to develop and broadcast high-quality dramatic programming on its network. So ACTRA recommends that $60 million of additional program funding be dedicated to scripted production. This funding should be made a distinct and permanent part of CBC's annual allocation.

The declining financial commitment from federal governments over the years has necessitated a growing reliance by the CBC on advertising revenues, placing the public broadcaster in direct competition with private broadcasters. Thus, the pressure on the CBC to secure advertising revenues has clearly affected programming choices. There is little doubt that while sports has held the secure level of programming, arts entertainment has gone in the opposite direction. During the hockey strike a little over two years ago, you'll remember the CBC management replaced hockey broadcasts with Hollywood movies--some pretty bad ones--rather than airing Canadian productions, because they claimed that this alternative was needed to maintain advertising revenues.

ACTRA recommends that with adequate public funding and the possible return to sponsored programming, the long-term objective of the CBC should be to be commercial-free in all of its services.

In a comparison of 18 major western countries in 2004, it was revealed that Canada had the third-lowest level of support for its public broadcaster. This analysis of government support for public broadcasting also measured the potential benefits derived from government support based on four different criteria: the promotion of culture and common values, the relative size of the domestic language market, the proximity to a larger country with the same language, and the audience appeal of indigenous programming.

The analysis ultimately showed that of the 18 countries surveyed, Canada would be the country that would derive the most benefit from a stronger and better-funded public broadcaster. The parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance, in its pre-budget consultation report in 2006, recommended increased funding for the CBC, and we would all like this committee to support that recommendation.

The CBC needs a stable funding commitment from this government that will allow for long-term planning that adjusts for rising costs and will assist the CBC with the necessary technical upgrading required to enable it to expand into new media and digital broadcasting. ACTRA does not believe the CBC mandate should be constrained to accommodate reduced funding. We urge this committee to ensure that the CBC is adequately funded to carry out its current mandate and to make the transition to digital and high-definition programming, above all without compromises to Canadian programming, and particularly drama production.

[Richard Hardacre]

Thank you, Raoul.

And finally, we have a few words about new media and the role of the CBC.

Technology has brought us more and more programming choices, obviously. Cable, satellite, and the Internet have resulted in Canadians having virtually unlimited access to foreign programs.

Our analysis shows us that the new platforms would not cannibalize existing television. Cross-platform projects involving new media distribution are increasingly anchored around major television properties. That's why we and the other unions in our coalition believe that the new platforms would not detract or cannibalize from existing television.

As Canadian content created for traditional media reappears on these new platforms, such as “mobisodes”, mobile broadcasting, and the Internet, there may be a favourable effect in fact in terms of the accessibility of Canadian programming. So it's important that the traditional television channels, especially the CBC, be subject to meaningful Canadian content requirements, in our opinion, given that the content may then appear on multiple platforms.

In 1998, the CRTC created a sweeping exemption order for all new media that exempted broadcast services from regulations of Canadian content for the entire libraries of programming they would offer through the Internet or on mobile platforms. ACTRA is recommending to this committee and to the CRTC--and we are recommending to the CRTC--that it must revisit and revoke its new media exemption order. ACTRA urges this committee to support that recommendation to Parliament, and we urge the government to direct the CRTC to carry out a review of its new media policy and revoke the exemption order it made.

In fact, there are clear precedents as to how new media platforms indeed can be regulated. In Europe, the European Commission adopted a new directive called the audiovisual media services directive, which distinguishes between linear and non-linear services. That directive in Europe called for content requirements for linear services that include both traditional broadcast and streamed audiovisual services on the Internet or on other new platforms.

Non-linear audiovisual services, such as video on demand--we call these non-linear--would be subject to a lighter regulatory regime under this directive, which also would not differentiate between the platforms.

Admittedly, in Canada as well, the CRTC has, to a limited extent, regulated non-linear services, such as video on demand, when offered by the broadcast distribution services--cable providers, in this case--to ensure that an appropriate level of Canadian content is available. We need that Canadian content to be protected through all of our broadcast media.

In summation, the need for a strong national public broadcaster--and I'm talking again now specifically about the CBC--is just as evident today as it was in 1929 when the CBC was established. It is apparent that our national public broadcaster must receive adequate, realistic funding to enable it to carry out its mandate in this 21st century.

We thank you, and we would be pleased to answer any questions the committee may have.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Thank you.

Ms. Keeper.

[Tina Keeper, Liberal, Churchill, MB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I would like to thank Mr. Hardacre and the ACTRA members for their presentation today.

Indeed, I have had the great opportunity to work as an artist as well in your profession. I have known that there was and is really something inextricable...about ACTRA and the artists it represents, and the CBC, and how that is part of its mandate, ensuring that Canadian talent is nurtured and is promoted and has a platform.

We heard from ACTRA when we had our hearing in Manitoba, and one of the comments they made was that in the last decade the cuts to CBC have impacted the local artists in such a way that they feel they really don't have a relationship to CBC any more. So there is no radio drama, and that was a regular gig for many actors, and they're not getting day calls to be on a CBC series or an MOW.

Could you talk about the impact of the cuts on your members?

[Richard Hardacre]

My colleagues may wish to comment as well.

As you know, I'm an actor and I base my work in Toronto now. I trained at the National Theatre School of Canada in Montreal, and I started my career in Montreal.

I'll give you a personal example. When I moved to Toronto in the late 1970s and started getting my first work in Ontario and outside of Quebec, there was a casting department at the CBC. It was very efficient and professional, with a head of casting and about six casting directors. They had a remarkable thing—a talent library that the CBC had put together over generations. They weren't just seeing the icons of Canadian television like Don Harron and Catherine McKinnon; they were seeing thousands of actors, not just from Toronto. The casting department spread its work across the country because there was real production being done by the CBC. This was from 1977 into the late 1980s. Cuts have occurred since about 1990, and that casting department completely disappeared in the 1980s.

I learned yesterday from my friend Raoul that CBC has reinvigorated a single-person casting advisor for productions they are co-producing or commissioning. That's really heartening. It's great news that once again there is a reason for actors to go into a CBC building on spec.

Ms. Keeper mentioned Manitoba. Hundreds of our members in Manitoba used to rely on CBC radio and television. I think CBC radio is one of the healthiest indications of what can be done for our culture in both languages in this country. CBC radio is relatively unscathed; it is the television that has been eviscerated.

ACTRA is a national federation of branches, and we have a branch in Edmonton, Alberta. That branch was formed specifically to protect the interests and cover the collective bargaining interests of our members in Edmonton. In the 1960s their only work in Edmonton was for the CBC, and that branch has now closed. ACTRA's national council had to choose in January of this year to close that branch, and 130 members in that branch no longer have an administrative centre. They have to rely on Calgary's office to handle their work, because there is no Canadian indigenous or any kind of CBC work in Edmonton. The work that happens in Edmonton is service production that depends on the fluctuation of the Canadian dollar. If it's a little bit high, there is no service production coming from the United States into the prairies and the west. We all know that the Alberta government is the one government in the country that doesn't have provincial tax credits toward film production.

So that's one indication of what the cuts have done over the last 15 years to the CBC. Actual casting advice from the CBC is not happening, and no one is getting a job directly from a CBC production. It works otherwise now.

I don't know if my colleagues have anything to say or add to that.

[Arlene Duncan]

My very first job as a teenager was with the CBC, back in the day when they had CBC variety. There were big productions that used Canadian musicians and live bands. Canadian designers did the costumes, sets were designed--and the productions were live. My first production was on the du Maurier Search for Stars, which was a cross-Canada production with representatives from all across Canada. I have managed to grow and learn in my profession through the CBC.

When variety disappeared there was radio and drama, and you learned to grow. You had your resume—as we call it—by doing different types of media. That sort of thing is gone because there just aren't the opportunities, and a lot more independent productions are now coming in. Today I can be in a production like Little Mosque on the Prairie, which is a uniquely Canadian experience. It has created worldwide interest because it's something that could happen in Canada, from a Canadian perspective and Canadian experience. I give that credit to the CBC and the fact that it's in existence.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Mrs. Bourgeois.

[Diane Bourgeois, Bloc, Terrebonne—Blainville, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

At paragraph 24 of your presentation, under the title « The Drama Crisis », you say that last fall, the CBC used the Drama Crisis to explain to this committee the need to increase the CBC's funding, which represents a budget of a bit more than a billion dollars.

In your opinion, is this billion dollars adequately managed?

[Richard Hardacre]

Excuse me, may I answer you in English?

[Diane Bourgeois, Bloc, Terrebonne—Blainville, QC]

Yes. We can all have access to interpretation.