Evidence of meeting #51 for Canadian Heritage in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was programming.
Executive Director, Writers' Union of Canada
Yes and no.
Our concern is that there were more programs on CBC radio. They did interviews of writers and literary works, and these have been replaced with what we've been referring to as the “dumbing-down”. We've met with CBC senior staff, and they have told us that they're trying to reach a broader audience, a younger audience, and therefore programming that was there for literary programs, arts, and cultural dialogue has been removed and replaced with elevator music. And that is our concern.
Conservative
Ed Fast Conservative Abbotsford, BC
Would you agree with me that we need to find a larger audience for what CBC is producing? Obviously, CBC wants to survive in an incredibly competitive industry.
I'm not surprised that CBC would try to somewhat dumb down what it's producing, because it's possible that we are raising students and young adults who are perhaps either not as literate or as aware of the rich literary heritage Canadians have.
Executive Director, Writers' Union of Canada
We're going to have to put some people on the Yann Martel book list.
I don't agree that our younger Canadians need to be dumbed down to. I think they are young, electronic, savvy, and cool, and they have a literary hunger and a cultural hunger that needs to be addressed. And we do them a disservice by making assumptions on their behalf as to what they want to hear.
If you were to look in the book world, we have incredible young writers. That says to me that they appreciated writing at an even younger age. When the Writers' Union was started 30 or 35 years ago, the average age of the writers, the members of the union--and you had to be a professional writer to join the union, you had to have created a book, had it produced by a recognized publisher, and had it sold in the marketplace--was 48 to 49.
When you graduate from school, you don't just write your first book. It's not like a lawyer or a doctor. It takes a period of time.
Conservative
Executive Director, Writers' Union of Canada
Yes.
That age has dropped. It has dropped drastically. What I'm saying is that our younger Canadians are much more savvy. We don't need to dumb down to them. We might have to look up to them.
Conservative
Ed Fast Conservative Abbotsford, BC
That's a good point.
Has CBC acknowledged that there is less literary content in its programming?
Executive Director, Writers' Union of Canada
Yes, they have. And they've made it very clear that it's to reach out to a broader audience.
Conservative
Executive Director, Writers' Union of Canada
No, they've given us a response to the question, but they haven't substantiated it.
Conservative
Conservative
Conservative
Ed Fast Conservative Abbotsford, BC
I'll keep it very, very short.
Let's talk about Little Mosque on the Prairie. Little Mosque, of course, was being produced in Saskatchewan, but my understanding is that much of the production has now been shifted to Toronto. Is that correct?
Conservative
Ed Fast Conservative Abbotsford, BC
And is this going to be typical of what happens? We start a production in one of our regions and then we shift it to Toronto, presumably because of cost efficiencies.
President, Writers Guild of Canada
There is some degree of cost efficiency. There is also the fact that Saskatchewan is having a bit of a production boom and we weren't actually able to get the facilities there to get the show on the air for January. In the current run, I believe, a quarter of the show is going to be shot in Saskatchewan.
Conservative
Ed Fast Conservative Abbotsford, BC
Oh, okay. I assumed it was because it was more efficient to do it in Toronto, but you're saying that it's actually because the resources aren't available in Saskatchewan, because they're already busy with other productions.
President, Writers Guild of Canada
That's right. That was certainly true in November when we produced the eight that were on air in January.
President, Writers Guild of Canada
Absolutely not. Or if it was, it had something to do with flights into Regina. That was another reason it was impractical. We had to fly an actor in from L.A., and you can't get from L.A. to Regina directly. So we need to talk to Air Canada.
