Canadian Heritage Committee on Feb. 14th, 2011

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

I will give you a few examples. First of all, thanks to the high-quality of our programs, more Canadians are watching our French-language and CBC programming. That is one way we are able to increase our revenues. When you look at what our Web services bring in, with our ever-increasing Web presence and an ever-increasing use of those services, you see that we are also able to increase revenue through Internet advertising.

We have a variety of initiatives, ranging from leasing studio space and partnering with other corporations to make use of our sites across Canada to developing our mobile services. We have all kinds of ways to balance our budget. That is how we are going to increase our revenues.

[Roger Pomerleau, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

You say you will pursue new avenues and new ways of doing business, form new connections and partnerships. Is that what you mean when you talk about ways of operating more efficiently?

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

Yes, that is definitely part of it. We also need to review all of our production methods, on both the English side and the French side, to ensure we are operating as efficiently as possible.

[Roger Pomerleau, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

Very well.

I have another question. We just found out that, on February 4, 2011, the Quebec Press Council adjudicated a complaint related to the program Les chefs! The council ruled as follows:

The Council finds that the segment on the program Les chefs is more consistent with a promotion spot than a news report. Therefore, the grievance regarding the independence of information and the mixing of formats is founded.

The grievance was filed by Norman McConnell.

What do you do when the Quebec Press Council determines that such a grievance is founded?

[Sylvain Lafrance]

First of all, we take it very seriously. It is important to note that Les chefs! is not an informative program, but a variety show. So there is a big difference there. Had the same been said about an information program, it would have been dealt with very quickly.

That said, the Quebec Press Council is a very credible organization. So we take its recommendations very seriously. We look at what we can do. Basically, we invent new practices. The program Les chefs! is produced regionally, in Quebec City, and made possible by the CRTC's Local Programming Improvement Fund. Clearly, we will examine the matter closely, because we follow a very strict advertising code when it comes to this kind of promotional interference. We determine whether we respected our code in this particular case. I can assure you that we take this seriously, because the distinctiveness of our television content stems in part from our advertising code, which is much more stringent than in the private sector.

[Roger Pomerleau, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

If I have time left, I want to give it to Ms. Lavallée.

[Carole Lavallée, Bloc, Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC]

How much time is left?

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

You have time for a brief question.

[Carole Lavallée, Bloc, Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC]

I saw a number of your colleagues at the CRTC when it was discussing regional television and, more specifically, in the case of Radio-Canada. We heard that 45,000 homes in Saguenay—Lac-Saint-Jean could not watch Radio-Canada's Saguenay TV programming, but could watch Montreal's, owing to a broadcasting and carriage problem with the two satellite providers carrying the TV networks. Obviously, one of the reasons why this situation in Quebec is so serious is the CRTC rule requiring satellite providers to carry just one Radio-Canada station per time zone. Even if the rule were changed to one station per province, it would not be adequate, because there are five. What do you plan to do?

[Sylvain Lafrance]

We testified before the CRTC to convey what a disservice this policy does to the public broadcaster, especially given how scattered the francophone population is throughout Canada. Yes, the bulk of it is in Quebec, but we cannot very well decide not to serve French speakers in Vancouver in order to serve those in Saguenay. We cannot do that kind of thing, we have a national mandate. We appeared before the CRTC in an attempt to get the policy changed and to force companies to carry all regional signals.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Merci.

Mr. Brown.

[Patrick Brown, Conservative, Barrie, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I have a few questions. First, how much of the CBC budget is directed toward the creation of Canadian content?

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

Do we have exact numbers, Kirstine?

[Patrick Brown, Conservative, Barrie, ON]

It can be a rough estimate.

[Kirstine Stewart, Executive Vice-President, English Services, CBC/Radio-Canada]

Obviously, we deal with the independent community, and in the last year we've spent about $407 million on programming.

[Patrick Brown, Conservative, Barrie, ON]

Does that include CMF funding?

[Kirstine Stewart]

Yes, that includes CMF funding as well.

[Patrick Brown, Conservative, Barrie, ON]

You made reference to ten signature events, and I want to see if you have any idea of what type of events you're looking at.

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

We want these events to be of a significant cultural impact, as was, for example, Champions of Change, which trumpeted the importance of volunteers in communities. Nobody else does that.

Another one would be Live Right Now, which is a campaign we have going on right now that has a higher purpose of ensuring that Canadians take care of their health. We heard Kirstine say that according to her research, for the first time in a very long time, the generation that follows our generation is actually not going to live as long as ours is. And that's about habits.

Do you want to go on?

[Kirstine Stewart]

I think in terms of signature events, what's important, whether it's Champions of Change or whether it's Live Right Now, is the benefit we have as a multi-platform broadcaster. We have the ability not just to select on a national level where we broadcast something quite passively on one network, whether it's radio or television; we actually have the opportunity to iterate whatever campaign it is and give people an opportunity for their voice to come through by either speaking to us via radio programming or interacting with us online.

One Million Acts of Green was the first kind of opportunity where we launched one of these signature programs online, and within three months we had the million acts of green. We thought it would take a year to compile them all from Canadians in their home interacting with each other and with the Canadian broadcaster on a particular subject.

So they're engaged and they're using all the multi-platforms to make sure they have a full understanding of the situation and a full experience. We give information in many different ways and they act on it, and it's been good. We hope to be the facilitator of conversation and be able to connect with Canadians in this way.

[Patrick Brown, Conservative, Barrie, ON]

I guess Hockey Day in Canada is another example.

[Kirstine Stewart]

Absolutely, it did very well.

[Patrick Brown, Conservative, Barrie, ON]

You've had lots of success with that.

From my own regional perspective, I know it's one of your goals to expand the relevance of the CBC in terms of regional coverage. I come from Barrie, Ontario, in the region of Simcoe County, and when I think of the radio stations that are most listened to, I look at where people go for local news. I don't think CBC has the relevancy it could. I think of local coverage. We have A Channel that covers local news regularly in Simcoe/Muskoka. We have Global and CTV that come up once in a while, but I don't think there's a noticeable CBC presence. Do you have any thoughts about how to enhance your regional presence in that region of Ontario?

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

Before Kirstine gives you a snapshot of what the local extension plan is all about, the comments you just made are exactly why we need to expand the reach and the connections we make with Canadians. Next week, as you'll see in one of the apps we're going to launch, it is going to be geo-located for news. So anywhere in this country, by going to the CBC news apps, you will have news right there, about where you are in this country. It will be able to read where you are and it will give you news about the community in which you are, first, before going national.

Let's talk about the plan.

[Kirstine Stewart]

The local service extension plan is an exciting plan because it looks at the country and those areas where we are not present. So currently, as Hubert said before, about seven million Canadians don't receive a local CBC service. By the end of this plan, we hope to get to about six and a half million of them. We do that by sending out specific criteria based on the number of towns or cities that have a population of over 50,000 that are currently unserved, and also going back into those communities where we may have had to perform some cuts in recent years, which may also have somewhat narrowed the version of local programming they get.

So our opportunity over these next few years in this local service extension plan is to assess the most need across the country, how we can address those needs based on where market competitors are already located, where we are truly needed, and how we can best connect and give local audiences what they need. So we do have the opportunity through technology to not just do it in the form of television or radio, but with new platforms as well.