Canadian Heritage Committee on Dec. 7th, 2010

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

Exactly right. We're the only local station in P.E.I.

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL]

To me, that doesn't make any sense. You're a public broadcaster.

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

We are not on Bell Direct or on Shaw.

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL]

What is the justification for that?

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

They have no capacity, seemingly, to carry us.

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL]

So it has to resort to over-the-air?

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

It has to resort to over-the-air.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you, Mr. Simms.

Mr. Scarpaleggia.

[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?

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

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--

[Francis Scarpaleggia, Liberal, Lac-Saint-Louis, QC]

Where is it coming from?

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

From gentlemen named David Statham and Michel Drapeau. They work together, and they clearly identified their link back to Quebecor Media.

[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.

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

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.

[Francis Scarpaleggia, Liberal, Lac-Saint-Louis, QC]

Is that what these ATIP requests are about?

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

If they are not about that, that's when—

[Francis Scarpaleggia, Liberal, Lac-Saint-Louis, QC]

Of the 1,200, how many are about that?

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

Well, I couldn't give you numbers.

[Francis Scarpaleggia, Liberal, Lac-Saint-Louis, QC]

Is it 10%, 15%?

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

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.

[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?

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

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.

[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?

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

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.

[Francis Scarpaleggia, Liberal, Lac-Saint-Louis, QC]

Understood.

Thank you.