Canadian Heritage Committee on Dec. 6th, 2007

[Bill Siksay, NDP, Burnaby—Douglas, BC]

Do you have any particular experience in new media? It's something that often eludes me. Are you a consumer of it? What's your sense of the challenges and possibilities with new media for CBC/Radio-Canada?

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

New media is for everybody involved. For example, Transcontinental, whose board is one I sit on, has a media company; or the web—how to connect and how to bring people to use its services.

As you know, there are nearly three million people who go to cbc.ca and 1.7 million people who go to radio-canada.ca. We have to acknowledge that. On a monthly basis, that's an incredible number of people. If the private companies I'm involved in had this kind of traffic on their website, they would be applauding on a daily basis.

So yes, sir, it's very important. All sorts of business models have been tried. This is something that is going to be very important in what I do starting January 2.

[Bill Siksay, NDP, Burnaby—Douglas, BC]

Mr. Lacroix, Madame Mourani touched on one of the challenges of English Canadian TV. I think Mr. Stursberg put it to us that English Canadians were alone among western industrialized nations in preferring television content produced in a foreign country and that this presented a pretty significant challenge for CBC/Radio-Canada.

Can you talk a little bit about that and how you see that particular challenge?

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

I understand it well; I think it's a big challenge. When we talked about challenges today, I told you about funding and I told you about the business environment. Another important challenge is to ensure that in prime time, high-quality Canadian TV content gets massively distributed to Canadians. That's a big issue. I think Richard and his team are doing a very good job at it.

A few minutes ago, a gentleman on one side of the table said, “Lacroix, we haven't heard you talk about shows yet.” The answer is, I really look forward, as January 2 turns around, to being able to tell you about the shows with the same passion that Robert Rabinovich did. You saw there was a very important launch a few days ago of a big show coming up, called The Border. Everybody's really excited about The Border. Let's see what it gives; it's high-quality Canadian content in prime time.

[Bill Siksay, NDP, Burnaby—Douglas, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Mr. Fast.

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Abbotsford, BC]

I have two questions and a quick comment.

First of all, have you met with Mr. Rabinovich?

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

Yes. Robert Rabinovich has been incredibly generous with his time in this transition period. I have only great things to say about that.

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Abbotsford, BC]

All right. As a second question, when your appointment was made public, there was criticism from some quarters. I believe the gist of the criticism was that you weren't an insider, that you were coming from the outside.

I think I've already shared my view on that. Could you respond to that criticism?

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

I can't do much about that criticism. I'm an outsider. I come in from the private sector. You've seen what I've done before in my life. I've never worked in a public crown corporation, but I think this is adding to the skills of the team that has been there and has worked within CBC for a little while now.

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Abbotsford, BC]

Well, I fully expect a very fresh approach.

My comment is this. A former member of this committee, Charlie Angus, who used to sit where Mr. Siksay presently sits, consistently raised the issue of some of the archival material that CBC has available and that just isn't getting out there to the public. I would simply request that you have a look at that and do whatever you can to make this archival material available, especially online, but also on other digital media that are now becoming available.

I want to thank you for appearing before us—

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

I just wrote it down. Thank you for the comment.

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Abbotsford, BC]

It's been very helpful. Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Thank you very much. I appreciate everyone's concerns; they were good questions.

And thank you very much, sir, for your good answers. I think you were very candid and open with us here today.

Here is one thing before we recess for a short time, because we will want to bring a motion forward.

I have to relay that when our committee was in Yellowknife and we had a town hall meeting in the legislature and went through the various delegations and people who were on the order paper—I think we were two and a half or almost three hours—what I did was open it up to the rest of the people who had been in the hall that evening. There was a gentleman at the back who had not participated in the events that evening, but he made one statement. He stood up and....

The reason I'm bringing this up is that in your presentation you say, “When I was older, The National, Le téléjournal, and Le point became my key sources of information. And then, later on, Ross Porter introduced me to jazz.”

This particular gentleman at the back said he didn't like jazz—the two hours.

I have to say that I fully love the broad perspective CBC has, and I think that for those who like jazz, it's great. But I had to get that gentleman's word forward in order to say that I'm quite sure that was the only thing in CBC he didn't like: the two hours that was jazz time.

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

So if I had had an email from him, Mr. Chair, he would have said, “Thank you very much, and by the way, can you do something about the jazz?”

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Yes.

Thank you very much for appearing today. We will....

Yes, Mr. Bélanger.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Before you recess, the clerk has given me a copy of a motion. I'd be prepared to move that motion immediately.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Okay. Then before we recess, it is moved by Mr. Bélanger:

That the Committee has examined the qualifications and competence of Hubert T. Lacroix as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)/Radio-Canada and finds him competent to perform the duties of the position he has been appointed...and that the Chair report to the House.

(Motion agreed to)

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Mr. Abbott.

[Jim Abbott, Conservative, Kootenay—Columbia, BC]

Just quickly, Mr. Chair, I have an item that I can't recall we discussed in public. I know we're all in agreement; this is a non-partisan issue. I wanted to get on the record in public that concerning Mr. Telegdi's motion, M-310, which has to do with the half-masting of flags, I believe we had a discussion that it probably would be ideal if the committee at some point could take a look into it and give some advice relative to that question.

Mr. Telegdi's motion is coming up in private members' business. It has to do with half-masting, and I think we had a very brief discussion.

At this particular point, obviously there will have to be the two hours of debate; it would then be referred to us. The point is that it is something that.... God forbid something happens and that it becomes a point of contention. I believe our discussion was that as committee members we saw a value in trying to get a handle on that particular issue.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Mr. Chair, I appreciate the comments by Mr. Abbott, but I think it would be appropriate for us to wait for the motion to be referred to committee, which hasn't happened yet.

Thanks for the heads-up. We certainly will consider it, should it be referred to us.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

I think it's under our mandate, so we can look into it.

Again, thank you, everyone.

Thank you, again, sir, for your great presentation.

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

Thank you for your questions.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

And good luck, sir.

The meeting is adjourned.