Canadian Heritage Committee on June 17th, 2015

[Keith Pelley]

—but at the exact same time I do believe that there is a plethora of opportunities for them to get that now. You can go very, very quickly online to get that information.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC]

I see that your television is clearly a service television. That is why you are available on the air, as normal, and on cable.

To be honest, the situation is very comical. “Comical” is not really the right word to use. Instead, perhaps I should say that it is very ironic to get to the end of the parliamentary session and realize how much of a mess this government has made. All this time, it has been letting the situation get more toxic.

My comments seem to be very election-oriented, but the truth is that a report was produced in 2011 on challenges related to emerging digital media in Canada. The government shelved the report, and nothing happened. Today, people and communities are losing a news service with a CRTC licence. The CRTC was supposed to establish the process so that this would be available to people. But it turns out that business people have lost their business model and that media are organized vertically, which makes the situation difficult for you.

Mr. Vaughan told you that, given the number of sister companies you have, you could self-finance. I dislike the fact that there is no framework for such complex activities. I see that Rogers, which is one of our largest media families and plays a key role, is basically in the situation you are describing. I am sure that you have difficult choices to make. It is clear that the laxity of government policies and the lack of vision have led to a bankruptcy. I'm not talking about a financial bankruptcy, but about a problem for audiences and entrepreneurs.

You have my sympathies, as you have had an unpleasant quarter of an hour. We represent all our constituents. This is our job, and it's normal for us to ask you the question. I would like to express my sympathy to you over the fact that the government has ignored the arrival of a new platform, a new supply, the place of heritage and Canadian identity and content the news represents. That is a relevant editorial and a Canadian vision of things. What strikes me the most in this whole matter is that business people want to do business in a field useful to Canadians. Canadians are the ones who consume that service, but they can no longer do so because there have been no updates to keep pace with the proliferation of international platforms.

I feel the government has also neglected other aspects. Clearly, I will finish this Parliamentary season, but I hope the heritage committee will be able to meet next week. I would like to remind you that CBC/Radio-Canada has once again had a very questionable appointment, that of Robert Jeffery. Consequently, I would like to move the following motion:

That the Committee, pursuant to Standing Order 111, invite Mr. Robert Jeffery, newly appointed director of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, to examine his qualifications and competence to perform the duties of the post to which he has been appointed, and that this televised two-hour meeting be held before Tuesday June 23rd 2015.

[Terence Young, Conservative, Oakville, ON]

On a point of order, Mr. Chair.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC]

We are clearly putting forward this motion because it is appropriate to question that selection. I feel this government has once again shown negligence toward our public broadcaster, whose role is the same, whether we are talking about minority language communities across the country, about Quebec or about all Canadians, be they anglophones or francophones. As I saw strong parallels between those two situations, I used the opportunity to request a study on the matter.

Thank you for your testimony. I now yield the floor to my colleagues.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

Thank you, Mr. Nantel.

A motion has been moved. You've all heard the motion:

That the Committee, pursuant to Standing Order 111, invite Mr. Robert Jeffery, newly appointed director of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, to examine his qualifications and competence to perform the duties of the post to which he has been appointed, and that this televised two-hour meeting be held before Tuesday June 23^rd 2015.

Is there debate on that?

Mr. Dykstra.

[Rick Dykstra, Conservative, St. Catharines, ON]

Yes, sir.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

Is there debate?

[Rick Dykstra, Conservative, St. Catharines, ON]

There's no debate. We're going to vote.

(Motion negatived)

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

We have a few minutes left. We'll go back to Mr. Young for about four minutes.

[Terence Young, Conservative, Oakville, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

Mr. Pelley, you talked about your responsibility to your shareholders, which I'm sure everybody here understands. You currently administer a licence that you hold in trust for the people of Canada. You have a responsibility to them.

It may not be a condition of your licence, strictly by legal definition, but you made a commitment; you made a promise to provide these news services to ethnic communities, and it sounds pretty clear to me like you've given up. You're saying to me, “Well they can get the news on the Internet”. I don't know too many seniors who watch news on the Internet. Young people do that; they get it from Facebook and Myspace, but most seniors don't. They're used to sitting down in their living room and watching news on television, which is the business you're in. You're in breach of those promises. You're in breach of those commitments.

I'd like to ask you this again, as Mr. Vaughan asked you. Why don't you relinquish the licence and let somebody else give it a try? I just want to mention a possibility. There are at least, I think, 25 Punjabi newspapers in the GTA that advertise. I know there are lots of very brilliant business people running those papers. I bet a consortium could be put together, or perhaps even one business leader, to provide news in Punjabi to the Punjabi community in the GTA. Why not let somebody else have a try? Why not go to the CRTC and say, “We can't do it anymore, we've given up. Let somebody else give it a try and let them have a licence”?

[Keith Pelley]

Again, I beg to differ that we are not serving the ethnic community. I take offence to the notion that Rogers hasn't been there for the ethnic community over the last 40 years. We've spent more money on ethnic programming than any other broadcaster.

I believe that our new strategy is one that is viable and sustainable. What surprises me today is that all of you seem surprised. That's the biggest one for me, because I've been talking about this for the last three years. This isn't going to be the only thing that you're going to face going forward in the broadcast industry. OMNI is just the tip of it. As the minister alluded to, you have to be prepared to change.

Do you want to make any other comments on that?

[Susan Wheeler]

No, I would simply note that we did commission a research study in the context of our licence renewal to look at media usage patterns. It indicates that in the 55-plus demographic, 52% are accessing international news on the Internet, 45% are accessing national news, and 36% are accessing local news on the Internet. These trends clearly do show that even older demographics are migrating to digital platforms to consume their news content, which creates additional competition for a service like OMNI.

[Colette Watson]

If I could add as well, ever so briefly, in the Ontario market we enhanced our services to the Punjabi community. The newscast in Punjabi was a national newscast done out of Vancouver. Under the new format, we now have a local to Ontario program and then a local to British Columbia program. Our Punjabi hosts in the GTA are now able to talk about issues specific to them in their market and how they view them, as opposed to having something from Vancouver.

We are trying to grow and adapt as well as we can. This in an election year, to answer Mr. Sullivan's question from earlier, allows us to be actually more interactive with our viewers. This allows them to go deeper into an election issue. A typical news report is 90 seconds long. While I understand your comments, it was never meant to be flippant with respect to saying that current affairs can replace news—

[Terence Young, Conservative, Oakville, ON]

Thank you, Chair. I'll give the rest of my time to Mr. Fantino.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

Thank you.

[Colette Watson]

—90 seconds is not enough time to get into an issue but a half-hour is.

[Keith Pelley]

We'll be carrying the federal debate in how many languages?

[Colette Watson]

In five languages.

[Keith Pelley]

The first federal debate, we'll be carrying in five languages. Again, if we had continued under the old scenario, that would not be done.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

You've got about 30 seconds left.

[Julian Fantino, Conservative, Vaughan, ON]

Just very quickly, Mr. Chair, thank you very much.

I want to just reference back to the CRTC. You've indicated that it did not see this coming, etc. At the 2014 licence renewal hearing, Rogers did not tell the CRTC that it intended to cancel all local news on OMNI stations. The other thing too, of course, is the response by the CRTC. A broadcaster is not a conventional broadcaster unless it offers a wide range of programming that reflects Canadian attitudes, opinions, ideas, values, and artistic creativity. Local programming containing newscasts, both on weekdays and the weekend, constitutes an essential part of the required programming.

Finally, Mr. Chair—

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

Sorry, I'm going to have to cut you off.

[Julian Fantino, Conservative, Vaughan, ON]

I just want to hearken back and say that if you can't comply with the licence, you should give it up.

[Keith Pelley]

We are complying with the licence, but thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

I'm going to have to move on. Mr. Sullivan will have the floor.

Mr. Vaughan.