Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. Thank you for having us.
The Fédération nationale des communications represents nearly a hundred unions with a total membership of some 6,000 print and electronic media practitioners in Quebec, Ontario and New Brunswick. It represents a majority of Quebec unions of journalists and technicians working for the major newspapers and large public and private radio and television networks, including those of the CBC.
The Fédération feels that the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage does a good job of encouraging people to think about the complex environment in which the media are evolving. Over the years, the committee has produced important and relevant reports that have not, unfortunately, received all of the attention they deserved from Parliament. We think it is urgent that the Canadian government adopt the recommendations made so far by the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, as well as those made by the Senate committee on media concentration to ensure the future of Canada's broadcasting system and the public good.
Because of major upheavals affecting the media, we must bring in measures to ensure the industry's viability and profitability, and to reduce the risk of undermining our social, cultural and democratic values. We must do everything in our power to guarantee affordable access to a range of quality Canadian services at both the local and national levels.
We must also protect the public's right to information that is independent of commercial media interests. We must recognize the importance of our public broadcaster and give it the resources it needs to fulfill its mandate. Television is still the source most Canadians turn to in order to be informed. Local programs and information must be a priority of the Canadian broadcasting system. The FNC believes that the CRTC made a mistake when it allowed TQS, a private broadcaster, to eliminate its newsroom and cut back its news service. General interest television must produce and broadcast local and national news.
The FNC also deplores the fact that the public broadcaster, CBC/Radio-Canada, has removed the morning news program from its conventional network and is broadcasting it exclusively on RDI, which is only available on cable. There is a lot of financial pressure on local and Canadian programming, but we can make things better. We must restore the balance between funding for specialized services and that for conventional services. CRTC data illustrate the strength of paid and specialized services and the clearly inferior financial situation of conventional Canadian television, both private and public.
To maintain the outstanding contribution that general-interest television makes to the Canadian television system, we must give it access to additional revenue derived from distribution service fees. New media, audience fragmentation, changes in viewing habits and concentration are having an impact on local general-interest television broadcasting. Some solutions will require broadcasters to review their business plans. The CRTC must also strengthen its policies to require general-interest television to make quantitative commitments to producing and broadcasting local and regional programs as well as news and information programs.
Right now, the only incentive local television stations have to produce content is the fact that they have to if they want access to advertising. The CRTC can do a lot better than that. CRTC data show that between 1998 and 2007, there was no real increase in local spending by commercial English-language or French-language broadcasters. Spending on non-Canadian programming, however, increased by 61%.
The large groups formed by mergers engage in concentration of their resources. It is essential, both in the public interest and in the interest of the Canadian broadcasting system, to reverse the current trend towards dropping regional services and centralizing television content in large urban centres.
In a context of proliferating distribution platforms, local programming could become a development driver for general-interest television. The FNC wants the local programming improvement fund to encourage broadcasters to invest in local production.
The shift to digital and high-definition will mean substantial outlays for conventional broadcasters. It should be said, however, that for many of them, renewal of transmitters and equipment coincides with the normal equipment replacement cycle. Be that as it may, it is possible to look at how programs are broadcast, and we think that if there are other ways to distribute them, it is up to distributors and broadcasters, who are in a position to pool their technical and financial resources to provide free distribution services if they want to.
Given the size of the Canadian market and ease of access to foreign content via new technology, public funding for television production is more important now than ever before. We think that the recently created media fund is flawed. However, it has the merit of eliminating the previous bias in production resources that gave a near-monopoly on production to independent producers.
We are concerned that Canadian Heritage has withdrawn the 37% reserve from CBC/Radio-Canada. The loss of this guarantee, combined with the lack of adequate funding, makes the national public broadcaster increasingly vulnerable. Parliamentary votes for public broadcasters are down by nearly $300 million from what was available in the mid-1980s. Canada's Parliament must act on the most recent report of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, which recommended seven-year stable funding, and a funding increase, raising the contribution by Canadians from $33 to $40 a year. I want to emphasize that point with data from a survey commissioned by the FNC and conducted between April 16 and 26. Surveyors talked to 1,000 Quebeckers, 80% of whom thought that the Canadian government should increase the CBC/Radio-Canada's funding to ensure its development if necessary. Some 63% of respondents disagree with the Canadian government's decision to refuse CBC/Radio-Canada's request for temporary financial support.
Private television broadcasters are suggesting that radio broadcasters be denied the right to collect advertising revenue. At the moment, we are not prepared to say that doing so could help the industry, until we have a guarantee of stable, sufficient government funding that corrects the mistakes that have been made.
To conclude, Canadian media are going through a structural crisis that must be resolved by implementing sustainable solutions, particularly by maintaining and strengthening the fundamental social, cultural, economic and democratic roles that general-interest television plays in Canadian society.
Thank you for listening.