Canadian Heritage Committee on May 19th, 2016

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

I am going to put that question to a journalist, and perhaps I will find out.

[Michel Cormier]

That is all to your credit.

As regards the news, you said that sometimes you listen to television journalists on the radio. That is not just the result of budget cuts. Our journalists work on multiple platforms now, on the web, radio, and television. We of course try to avoid repeating the television voice-over on radio. We still have journalists who do most of their work on radio and others on television. Some stories lend themselves more readily to radio than to television.

We just sent one of our journalists, Sylvain Desjardins, our Paris radio correspondent, to Africa. He has only done radio to date. These are difficult assignments that sometimes come across better on radio. There are eye-witness accounts and so on.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

That leads to the use of several platforms.

[Michel Cormier]

Absolutely, but we try to cast journalists who are the best fit for the story being reported. For a news conference, what we call “convenience news”, a journalist will do both. On the other hand, we have divided up news depending on what is ongoing. Often a journalist will do breaking news, as it is called, up-to-the-minute news on a single subject, and we will subsequently assign a second journalist who will go a little further and research the story, or as Mr. Vaugh said, peel the onion. That provides instantaneous coverage of the story and a slightly closer look at the issue behind it.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

We will always remember the great pride Bernard Derome showed when he referred to Radio-Canada as the news leader. He must be very proud of the work done by someone like Jean-François Bélanger, who can switch from a story as dramatic as the events at the Bataclan to an item on birds of prey attacking seagulls on La Croisette, in Cannes.

Sometimes great initiatives are taken on other networks. I often watch TVA in the morning. What that channel does regionally is exemplary. I always wonder why Radio-Canada does not do a systematic regional review more often. I am not talking about RDI, but rather about Radio-Canada's main channel. I was looking at the Radio-Canada Moncton site this morning and learned that the reassignment of judges in New Brunswick was being arranged “among friends”. That is news. Would you consider a more methodical review of this kind and mention what is going on here and there in the regions? You have the technology to do it.

[Michel Cormier]

On “RDI matin”, we have people everywhere.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

On RDI, yes, but I am talking about Radio-Canada's first channel

[Michel Cormier]

Our correspondent Michèle Brideau is in Moncton every morning. The first channel will not rebroadcast RDI's programming. Youth programming is on the air at that time. That is general interest television.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

I am talking about TVA and RDI. When you are an avid news consumer, you watch RDI. I thought it was possible to reflect the Canadian community as a whole. However, you seem to be saying that is not particularly useful.

Earlier you mentioned “discoverability”. I expect a great deal from the major consultations Minister Joly referred to. I would like to know what you think about that. You say everything is on the table. Do you think CBC/Radio-Canada is in favour of a fuller representation of broadcasting services on the Internet operated in whole or in part in Canada? What is your position on all that?

[Michel Cormier]

Talks have started on that point. I will not present a position on behalf of Radio-Canada and the CBC this morning. What I can tell you, however, is that digital is a major asset in enabling us to do so.

Consider the example of radio. We just launched a new service called Première PLUS, which is both a catch-up TV and podcast service. We are developing strategies to showcase our archives, which are national treasures. All that will enable Canadians to discover this new content. If they have missed a program when it was broadcast at a specific time during the day, it will be readily accessible later on. We will also make them easier to find. The same is true for tou.tv. This is quite a successful service for watching in catch-up mode and even for certain original digital productions.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

I entirely agree with you.

[Michel Cormier]

We are proceeding in the same way for news. We want to ensure that digital also helps us showcase our content and archives and catch up on content we may have missed.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

I asked the question because I think CBC/Radio-Canada must champion our policies.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Larry Maguire]

We're going to have to shut it down pretty soon.

Go ahead.

[Michel Cormier]

Do you mean it must be the champion of digital? That is what we want as well.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

That is why I wanted to hear your views on the subject. You cannot make decisions before the policy is adopted or before the changes occur.

[Michel Cormier]

I do not think we can escape digital.

[Marco Dubé]

I would add that the plan we put in place two years ago is leading us toward a quite substantial digital shift. The new funding will enable us to achieve that and to see it through. So when you say, “CBC/Radio-Canada, champion of digital”, I say: absolutely. When we talk about the future of local news—because it is this committee's objective to find solutions to that issue—CBC/Radio-Canada on a digital platform is a solution to that problem, a solution that is good and efficient and that people are eager to see.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

So we need more network.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Larry Maguire]

Thank you, Mr. Nantel.

That does end our time. We've gone a little bit over, but we started a little bit late.

I want to thank our four executives here from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation who have been with us this morning. We thank you for your presentation, but also the depth of the answers that you've been able to supply to us as well. Thanks to the panels for the questions that we've had and the information that we've been able to get this morning.

I do have a couple of questions that I had myself. I will give them to the clerk and maybe we can provide them to you and get some written answers back at some point. They were in regard to the staffing breakdowns by provinces and some of those things.

We have a bit of an in camera meeting. We'll allow everyone a minute to vacate the room if they're not a member of the committee or staff who deal with any of the committee members.

Thank you.

[Proceedings continue in camera]