Evidence of meeting #7 for Canadian Heritage in the 39th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was cbcradio-canada.
A recording is available from Parliament.
NDP
Bill Siksay NDP Burnaby—Douglas, BC
You also mentioned the word “democratic” in your discussion of what CBC/Radio-Canada should be about. I know Mr. Lafrance has also talked to us about that. Can you expand a little bit on what is the democratic mandate of CBC/Radio-Canada?
December 6th, 2007 / 12:15 p.m.
Designate President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)/Radio-Canada, As an Individual
I think it's a very important one. A public broadcaster is not a state broadcaster.
The public broadcaster goes out and puts information in different platforms, again, and allows us, Canadians, to understand the issue at hand in the best possible way, the most independent way, so that we can all make up our minds on that particular matter and formulate an opinion.
The substance behind the opinion is what CBC/Radio-Canada is all about.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gary Schellenberger
Thank you for that.
Now we will switch to Mr. Scarpaleggia.
Liberal
Francis Scarpaleggia Liberal Lac-Saint-Louis, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and congratulations, Mr. Lacroix.
Since many of the questions I had in mind have been touched on in some way, I'll just follow up on some of the questions my colleagues asked.
In terms of your appointment, just to follow up on Mr. Siksay's first question, you were contacted by a headhunter. Is that it?
Designate President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)/Radio-Canada, As an Individual
Yes, sir, I was.
Designate President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)/Radio-Canada, As an Individual
The firm? It was Egon Zehnder. They were in charge of the search firm that was in charge of the process.
Designate President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)/Radio-Canada, As an Individual
There were two people at Egon Zehnder. If you want the names, I'd be happy to provide them.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gary Schellenberger
It's a process that has been followed, and I'd just as soon not go to who the headhunter was. I think that's getting out of our range here.
Liberal
Francis Scarpaleggia Liberal Lac-Saint-Louis, QC
You know, Mr. Chair, with all due respect...
I don't impugn your integrity whatsoever, Mr. Lacroix. I'm just asking you the question.
I have sat on many committees when I was on the government side, and the opposition asked.... I think if there was a hint that the person had voted Liberal in an election, they were pounced on, and that's not what I'm asking at all.
But I'm just curious. There were media reports as to who the headhunter was. It's just for the record. That's all.
Designate President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)/Radio-Canada, As an Individual
You want the name of the person? I will tell you I don't remember the name of the lady--Joanne something. She will forever be upset with me because I forgot her name.
Liberal
Designate President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)/Radio-Canada, As an Individual
Robert Swidler was the principal who ran the....
Designate President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)/Radio-Canada, As an Individual
Liberal
Francis Scarpaleggia Liberal Lac-Saint-Louis, QC
You mentioned a lot of terms, like sound financial management, the importance of competition, the importance of creativity, and so on. To some extent, these are all buzzwords. I'm sure you've said that the people at CBC/Radio-Canada are extremely creative and competent, but I would imagine you would have thought the same of people at Télémédia and the people at Transcontinental, and so on.
Could you elaborate a bit on the difference, in terms of vision, in terms of corporate culture, between companies like private sector companies that focus on market share almost exclusively and CBC?
Going back to a point someone else raised, you say you're going to apply the private sector business practices and models and criteria and so on to the CBC, but then, and I'm glad you went in this direction afterwards.... When you spoke of your vision, you talked about how the CBC is different; it has a mandate to present alternative points of view, I think you said.
How are you going to grapple with that contradiction? The CBC, yes, has to be run like a good business, but it's not a business; it's a public broadcaster, it's a vehicle of democracy. So how are you going to manage that tension?
Designate President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)/Radio-Canada, As an Individual
The management side and the techniques and the way I manage people, companies, P and Ls --profit and loss statements--whatever else, they are mine in terms of having been acquired; these skills have been acquired over 30 years.
I am sure the last thing this committee wants to hear is that our public broadcaster is not well managed. So we're going to continue doing this on a regular basis.
Yes, they are buzzwords, but that's the first thing in the questions. The five questions I listed to you in my opening remarks are questions that I come into any business situation and ask. I ask the management team, whether it was at Télémédia or one of the business units.... That's the way we move forward.
Liberal
Francis Scarpaleggia Liberal Lac-Saint-Louis, QC
I appreciate that. The only thing that makes me a little uncomfortable is that you talked a lot about competition and sports, your love of sports, and I haven't heard you speak much about a passion for culture. If one looks at your biography, it's very impressive. You're obviously a very successful individual. You sit on many boards. And there's a lot of reference to sports and so on, which is great, but....
For example, when Mr. Rabinovitch came here, he would speak about specific programs and how excited he was about a specific drama series and so on. I haven't heard that. I've heard about sports and competition and flexibility, and these are all good concepts, but I'd like to go on to another question.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gary Schellenberger
The last question is going to be split: one short question from Mr. Fast and one short question from Ms. Mourani.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gary Schellenberger
We can go another round.
What we'll do then is we'll have a short question from Mr. Fast, and we won't split the time, but we'll go for one more round.
