Evidence of meeting #35 for Canadian Heritage in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was crtc.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:05 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, CBC/Radio-Canada
Exactly right. We're the only local station in P.E.I.
4:05 p.m.
Liberal
Scott Simms Liberal Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL
To me, that doesn't make any sense. You're a public broadcaster.
4:05 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, CBC/Radio-Canada
We are not on Bell Direct or on Shaw.
4:05 p.m.
Liberal
4:05 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, CBC/Radio-Canada
They have no capacity, seemingly, to carry us.
4:05 p.m.
Liberal
4:05 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, CBC/Radio-Canada
It has to resort to over-the-air.
4:05 p.m.
Liberal
Francis Scarpaleggia Liberal Lac-Saint-Louis, QC
Thank you.
Mr. Lacroix, I admire your passion for public broadcasting, which is on display today.
I'm not normally a member of this committee, so you'll have to excuse me if some of the questions seem a bit naive.
You're getting 1,200 access to information requests from the same source?
4:05 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, CBC/Radio-Canada
We've received 1,262. I think those were the numbers on November 26.
We never know where the access requests come from, but because the people who actually file those requests have been in the paper, and have been kind of gloating about the fact that this is what they've done--
4:05 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, CBC/Radio-Canada
From gentlemen named David Statham and Michel Drapeau. They work together, and they clearly identified their link back to Quebecor Media.
4:05 p.m.
Liberal
Francis Scarpaleggia Liberal Lac-Saint-Louis, QC
It's interesting, because I normally sit on the environment committee, and we're dealing with a similar issue. We're looking at an environmental bill of rights, which would give citizens the right to complain against the companies that are hurting the environment. One of the concerns the Conservatives have raised is that this clause in the environmental bill of rights could be used by competitors to get at their competitors.
I found out the other day, when I was at a conference, that the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, which is in Montreal, as you know, which is a side body of NAFTA, has a mandate to investigate complaints about environmental infractions. They won't take complaints from competitors, one competitor against another.
Would you be in favour if, under the law or under regulation, competitors would not be allowed to abuse the ATIP system against other competitors? Is this something the government should be looking at? They don't like the idea when it's an environmental issue, but they seem to subscribe to it here.
4:05 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, CBC/Radio-Canada
You see, the law says that....
We're fine with this, by the way. We're fine with access to information that deals with the general administration of our business.
4:05 p.m.
Liberal
4:05 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, CBC/Radio-Canada
If they are not about that, that's when—
4:05 p.m.
Liberal
4:05 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, CBC/Radio-Canada
Well, I couldn't give you numbers.
4:05 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, CBC/Radio-Canada
Frankly, I couldn't say. The requests that we get are all-encompassing. They refer to the salaries of anchors, to our programming strategies, to what we do every day.
4:05 p.m.
Liberal
Francis Scarpaleggia Liberal Lac-Saint-Louis, QC
Understood. I'll move on to another question.
Maybe I misunderstood, but were you saying that with some broadcasters the members of the board of directors are feeding stories to the newsrooms?
4:05 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, CBC/Radio-Canada
No. I invite you to read the article that Mr. Baillargeon wrote in Le Devoir. He says in that article that it seems that directors of different sections of this particular newspaper actually imposed the content to reporters of what should be said on different matters.
4:05 p.m.
Liberal
Francis Scarpaleggia Liberal Lac-Saint-Louis, QC
I thought that under the CRTC-approved merger deals there were supposed to be murs mitoyens, Chinese walls, between administration and newsrooms. Did I misunderstand?
4:10 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, CBC/Radio-Canada
Sir, the answer is yes. I don't want to comment on it, because obviously I have a very partisan view. That's why I'm sending you to the two articles.
