Canadian Heritage Committee on May 30th, 2019

[Michel Bissonnette]

I would say that there is a balance in news coverage that private broadcasters and the public broadcaster in Canada can provide. I feel the same neutrality and objectivity on both sides. I don't feel that the American trend is currently manifesting itself on the Canadian side.

[Michel Picard, Liberal, Montarville, QC]

One of the problems that we will have to deal with and that is being discussed in other committees is the issue of fake news in the election context. You have proposed real news as a remedy to fake news. For me, the problem is not in knowing whether real news can be the remedy to fake news, but in knowing how I can determine whether the news is real.

[Michel Bissonnette]

This is greatly a matter of brand trust. That is what we are seeing in all age groups. When we present the Radio-Canada brand, people know they will receive quality information they can rely on. During the election campaign, we also add fact checking. Every day, we check what has been said and confirm what the truth on the matter is. Next fall, we will launch something new that will really help people distinguish between fake news and real news. That will help Canadians be better informed and better prepared to deal with that situation.

[Michel Picard, Liberal, Montarville, QC]

I have no further questions.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dabrusin]

That's all? Okay.

We are now going to Ms. Wagantall for five minutes.

Go ahead, please.

[Cathay Wagantall, Conservative, Yorkton—Melville, SK]

Thank you very much.

It's a pleasure to be here today. For three of us sitting here, this is not the committee we're normally on, so I'm playing a little bit of catch-up here. I have to admit I've gone to Google to get some information, but I've used the CBC news app, just so you're aware.

[Catherine Tait]

Well done.

[Cathay Wagantall, Conservative, Yorkton—Melville, SK]

It's very important to me that, as you say, the facts be straight. We have heard some reflections on past cuts to the CBC. I thought it was important to look that up and to try to understand the dynamics involved there.

You said, Ms. Tait, that you don't want to see history repeat itself.

Huge debt is a problem, and that's what our country found itself in in 2008-2009 and into 2010 with the great depression that hit the entire world. That was the dynamic under which that particular government—the Conservative government at the time—was functioning. I saw here that it said—

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dabrusin]

Ms. Wagantall.

[Cathay Wagantall, Conservative, Yorkton—Melville, SK]

Yes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dabrusin]

She can't comment on government policy as far as—

[Cathay Wagantall, Conservative, Yorkton—Melville, SK]

That's fine. I'm not expecting her to. Thank you.

The federal government cuts, it said, will mean that the CBC will lose $115 million in funding over three years, according to the budget release at the time. So the public broadcaster saw 10% taken from its current $1.1 billion budget as part of a $5.2 billion cut overall to federal spending over three years. The CBC budget was trimmed by roughly $36 million per year for those three years.

I'll read this comment from the CBC: “As part of the government's plan to cut spending, all federal departments, agencies and Crown corporations had to submit budgets showing five per cent and 10 per cent cuts”.

Now this is interesting to me, because I remember this happening. I wasn't involved in government at the time, but I'm from rural Saskatchewan, and I listen to CBC Radio all the time. At that time, I don't know who was representing the Canadian broadcasters, but the individual who was responsible for dealing with this for the CBC was on radio and made the comment that she found it to be an incredibly helpful exercise to work through that and to determine how to deal with those circumstances. The article says: “A statement by the broadcaster said it will implement the reduction 'in a way that doesn't overly compromise' its strategy for increasing local coverage”.

That says to me that this entire country had to work together through a very difficult time, and the CBC was doing its part and yet was still determined to increase local coverage.

I appreciate hearing your concern for continuing that mandate. I live 90 kilometres from the the one large community in my entire rural riding. My large community is 16,000 people, and as I drive from my home into Yorkton, I cannot get the CBC.

You're talking about making a priority these areas of our country that don't get other coverage—or where you are our coverage. Where in your plans or how high a spending priority is that for you, including the $675 million invested now, which I applaud. Where do our rural areas fit in that priority? Can you give an percentage for the expected improvement in growth across Canada in rural ridings?

[Catherine Tait]

Those are a lot of questions.

I wasn't there when that particular quote was given.

[Cathay Wagantall, Conservative, Yorkton—Melville, SK]

I can appreciate that.

[Catherine Tait]

But I like that glass-half-full approach of whoever that person was.

I think it's important for everybody to understand, and if you're new to this committee, that CBC/Radio-Canada ranks 16 among 18 public broadcasters in the OECD family. The $1.2 billion that we receive means practically, very roughly, that Canadians pay about $34 per capita for their public broadcaster. When you look at the funding of the BBC, when you're into $5 billion for countries that, by the way, are much smaller.... We operate in six time zones, two official languages, eight indigenous languages, all of that—

[Cathay Wagantall, Conservative, Yorkton—Melville, SK]

Yes, I applaud that, and I understand it. So how do you plan to fulfill this mandate going forward?

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dabrusin]

I'd like to flag that Ms. Wagantall's out of time, but I do want to give you time to respond to that, if you can just provide a quick answer.

[Catherine Tait]

I can't give you a percentage off the top of my head, and I don't want to mislead you. Going forward, we have made local and regional representation and representing contemporary Canada, meaning all of the diversity of Canadian voices, the top priority in our strategic plan. We will manage that within the resources we have.

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dabrusin]

Thank you very much.

We will now go to Mr. Long for five minutes.

[Wayne Long, Liberal, Saint John—Rothesay, NB]

I have a business background and had to balance budgets and make cuts and meet payroll and all of those things. One of the comments my colleague across the room made was that the CBC said the cuts wouldn't overly affect coverage.

[Cathay Wagantall, Conservative, Yorkton—Melville, SK]

I didn't say it; the CBC said it.

[Wayne Long, Liberal, Saint John—Rothesay, NB]

The point is that “overly” meant that coverage would be affected, I would say. I was with the Saint John Sea Dogs and if I doubled my prices, it may not be overly, but it's....

I want to focus again on Mr. Scheer's comments or lack of comments about axing the news division of CBC. How many people work in the news division of CBC coast to coast to coast?

[Catherine Tait]

It's thousands. I'll just give you the top line number of employees at 7,500, and of those probably about 900 people are associated with technical services and all of the back office work. It's hard to say how many people work in news because there's all the infrastructure and the uplink and the managing, and the buildings, even, and then you have to divide it between English and French. I would say you're looking at probably about 5,500 people related to delivering our core service, which is news.

[Wayne Long, Liberal, Saint John—Rothesay, NB]

You can't break that down to how many—

[Catherine Tait]

We could. I can't do it off the top of my head now. I could do it.