Evidence of meeting #17 for Canadian Heritage in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was news.

A video is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Jennifer McGuire  General Manager and Editor in Chief, CBC News, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Michel Cormier  General Manager, News and Current Affairs - French Services, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Marco Dubé  Executive Director of Regional Services, French Services, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Andrew Cochran  Senior Managing Director, Strategy, CBC News, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

9:50 a.m.

Executive Director of Regional Services, French Services, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

Marco Dubé

Allow me to add that the three objectives for our regional services are as follows.

The first is to make the digital shift. Here I am echoing what Mr. Cormier said on this point. In each of our major regions, we have to ensure that we are active on the Internet with our regional websites 18 hours a day, seven days a week, covering the news when it happens, and that we are there for Canadians in their regions with regional content when they decide to access our digital platforms. This is the plan that we announced last year and that we will be consolidating over the coming year.

The second is to restore a service that we lost as a result of the cuts. In consultations with the francophone minority communities in the west and Ontario, people clearly told us that the loss of more social and cultural programs—we were forced to cut them—had had an impact on those communities. Here we are talking about everything that was not information, news, or public affairs. Cultural programs are about a certain activity in the communities. This is important for them, and we are the only ones who do this kind of program. If we do not do it, that will be a loss for the communities. Consequently, we will be restoring a number of those programs in some of those regions, and we are in the process of taking action to address this question.

The third concerns the succession issue, more particularly in the regions. When we get out of the major centres such as Montreal, Quebec City, Ottawa, and Gatineau, we experience quite significant problems recruiting young journalists, directors, and producers of digital content for Radio-Canada. We have to invest money to ensure that the next generation joins our stations across the country and that we are able to offer the services that Canadians expect.

Those are the three objectives for reinvestment in regional services.

Thank you.

9:55 a.m.

General Manager and Editor in Chief, CBC News, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

Jennifer McGuire

I was just going to finish the story.

On the English side, we are investing in local, fixing some of the pressure points in terms of the cuts we have made, and expanding our service, with the first station announced in London, Ontario. We are also investing in international coverage, and you will see us create more pop-up bureaus through CBC News. For the rest of the English services, it is investment in content, particularly dramatic content, and in our digital capabilities.

9:55 a.m.

Conservative

The Vice-Chair Conservative Larry Maguire

Okay, we will go to Mr. Waugh again, for seven minutes.

9:55 a.m.

Conservative

Kevin Waugh Conservative Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK

First of all, thank you for your three services that you just talked about.

I hear the French got cut back. I don't know if it got cut back as much as the English portion of it. You are going to get some money. How does this work on CBC? I know there is radio, there is digital, there is English television, and there is French. Do you get the same amount of money as the English on your budget?

9:55 a.m.

Executive Director of Regional Services, French Services, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

Marco Dubé

For the regions, we get a similar amount, but I would say that budgets on the French side are applied to the priorities on the French side, and budgets on the English side are applied to the priorities on the English side. In this case, for the first year, it is a similar amount.

9:55 a.m.

Conservative

Kevin Waugh Conservative Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK

How much would that be?

9:55 a.m.

Executive Director of Regional Services, French Services, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

Marco Dubé

For the regional services, it is about $3 million that will be applied for the first year of the reinvestment.

9:55 a.m.

Conservative

Kevin Waugh Conservative Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK

That is out of the $75 million that the new government has promised you.

9:55 a.m.

Executive Director of Regional Services, French Services, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

9:55 a.m.

Conservative

Kevin Waugh Conservative Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK

It is the same with yours. Is that right?

9:55 a.m.

General Manager and Editor in Chief, CBC News, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

Jennifer McGuire

On the English side, it is $3.5 million to news, with $2 million going into local services, notwithstanding the expansion piece, which would be separate.

9:55 a.m.

Conservative

Kevin Waugh Conservative Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK

What is “local services”?

9:55 a.m.

General Manager and Editor in Chief, CBC News, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

Jennifer McGuire

It is anything that is local, for locals. It would be local radio, local television, and local digital that is based in the community, and also some of our music services.

9:55 a.m.

Conservative

Kevin Waugh Conservative Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK

I will compliment you. I have seen many cameramen from western Canada down here on professional development over the last six weeks, many from Saskatchewan, so I think your organization does a very good job on professional development. I would say that CBC does a way better job than any private broadcaster in this country. You seem to have a higher level of integrity, if you don't mind my saying that.

9:55 a.m.

General Manager and Editor in Chief, CBC News, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

9:55 a.m.

Executive Director of Regional Services, French Services, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

Marco Dubé

Thank you very much for that comment. That is very kind.

I would add that, with regard to the digital shift, our first priority was to train employees and to ensure that those who were with us were familiar with the business, mission, and values of the public broadcaster so that they could make the shift to new technologies and new tools.

We have trained more than 1,000 people for the digital shift across the company. They have acquired all kinds of new skills.

9:55 a.m.

Conservative

The Vice-Chair Conservative Larry Maguire

Mr. Waugh is going to share his time with Mr. Van Loan.

9:55 a.m.

Conservative

Peter Van Loan Conservative York—Simcoe, ON

In terms of your focus on local news, out of Toronto, what do you consider the local market covered by Toronto radio and television?

9:55 a.m.

General Manager and Editor in Chief, CBC News, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

Jennifer McGuire

It is the greater Toronto area, so the 416 and the 905. That is the primary focus in terms of the local Toronto station.

9:55 a.m.

Conservative

Peter Van Loan Conservative York—Simcoe, ON

I'm in the greater Toronto area, but I think you might have heard me say it has been literally years since I've seen a CBC camera in my constituency. I see one from CTV maybe every third or fourth weekend. It used to be every weekend. Usually when something breaks, you have someone on the phone, and a map, and they declare that this is happening north of the GTA. It's actually in the GTA, but they always say that.

If you'd looked into what I've said in the past, you might have a comment on the way that the East Gwillimbury-Georgina-Northern York region is just not on the map as far as CBC is concerned.

10 a.m.

General Manager and Editor in Chief, CBC News, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

Jennifer McGuire

We've experimented with putting bureaus within the city of Toronto to try to do a better job of covering, but I take your point. I think we strive to hit the most important stories on any given day for all of Toronto, wherever they live. Could we do a better job of reflecting the different communities in Toronto? Absolutely.

10 a.m.

Conservative

Peter Van Loan Conservative York—Simcoe, ON

Certainly, the impression, even for folks who live in parts of old metro Toronto, is that CBC is the “south of St. Clair” station. I can tell you, going to door to door during elections, I see what people are watching at the news hour, and it is CTV and Global all the way, in my neck of the woods. I think that's because, occasionally, they show up. Occasionally they cover local stories there. They just don't see that with CBC.

10 a.m.

General Manager and Editor in Chief, CBC News, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

Jennifer McGuire

We are currently in the process of resetting our Toronto programming strategy, and this has been an active discussion, particularly with regard to the television products. I think the radio piece is quite successful across the GTA. Hopefully, you'll see improvement on that front.

10 a.m.

Conservative

Peter Van Loan Conservative York—Simcoe, ON

I was saying that on the radio side it used to be very, very different, primarily because a guy named Peter Gzowski was actually based up there. With his departure, it was like we disappeared.

10 a.m.

General Manager and Editor in Chief, CBC News, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation