Canadian Heritage Committee on Sept. 27th, 2016

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK]

I'm going to move to The Tyee.

Robyn, let's talk journalism with you. I only have a minute left.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

You have a minute and a half.

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK]

When you went to journalism school, you probably didn't think that you were going to be based with a magazine, like you are in B.C., so talk about that aspect of journalism. I would that say half your class no longer is in journalism right now. You're one of the few lucky ones.

[Robyn Smith]

I'd say that's accurate. I didn't really know what I would do. I did have the opportunity to try a few different newsrooms while I was in school, as minor internships, and it was really disheartening.

Obviously, getting into those newsrooms was a wonderful experience for a young reporter, but you instinctively got the sense that things were more chaotic than maybe they had been in the past. Morale among reporters was not high, so it quickly got everybody in the program thinking that if the jobs were scant and few in what we always thought of as the typical journalism outfit, what else was out there?

There were a few alternatives. Some people in my class are at outfits like VICE Canada. Obviously The Tyee is a home for a few, but the options were fewer than I thought when I entered school.

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK]

Do journalism schools tell you in your first week that the jobs are not going to be plentiful?

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Mr. Waugh, I'm sorry, but I've let you go a little over.

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK]

I know the answer. Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

We'll go Mr. Nantel of the NDP, for seven minutes.

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

Thank you for being here with us.

To the lady and gentlemen who represent Télé Inter-Rives ltée, as my colleague Mr. Waugh was saying, the fact that your TV station is family-owned is very interesting. That model is representative of a good number of media realities, such as rebroadcasting.

You talked about issues involving Radio-Canada, which has changed the way in which it allocates its advertising revenues somewhat. Here, when we listen to TVA—which belongs to Radio Nord Communications inc., if I'm not mistaken—there is often a bloc of local advertising messages. Sometimes, the network picks them up.

How do things work in your stations?

Unless I am mistaken, by giving you 20 minutes per news bulletin, TVA allows you a greater penetration of the local market and allows you to increase the sense of belonging of local viewers.

Is Radio-Canada more restrictive when it comes to your original production?

[Pierre Harvey]

It is the same for both networks. I forgot to mention earlier that the revenues that the CBC has taken away from us are advertising revenues. That is very significant.

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

They are the lifeblood.

[Pierre Harvey]

Exactly.

These revenues are not from federal subsidies to the CBC. Let us be very clear on that. These are advertising revenues that are generated by our station's presence in the market and by the ads broadcast by our station across the network or, in some cases, broadcast nationally. Those revenues should in principle be ours. These are the revenues that the CBC has taken away from us.

We do not have this problem with other networks, of course. We have our network revenues that are distributed according our audience market share in each market we serve. This will become more difficult for us over the next five years.

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

We can easily imagine that. I think the members of the committee have clearly understood to what extent advertising revenues are the very foundation of the system, regardless of the public support you receive as an entrepreneur or public network.

[Cindy Simard]

Exactly.

As we said in our brief, it represents 70% of our revenues. Moreover, we have no control over that revenue since we are not in charge of our network sales.

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

With regard to revenues, I would like to go back to the point you made earlier that general stations in the United States receive royalties. You mentioned that the CRTC wanted to do the same thing. You referred to the Copyright Act, which shows how important it would be for Jean-Pierre Blais to appear before the committee as part of this study. It is patently obvious. Very clearly, these decisions are entirely within the purview of the CRTC. We must definitely hear his point of view on this.

Why do you refer to the Copyright Act?

[Pierre Harvey]

We are not lawyers. From what we have read, however, and based on the information that has been circulated, the challenge came from the country's main cable distributers and satellite broadcasters. The Supreme Court made its ruling based on a section of the Copyright Act of Canada. I do not know which section though.

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

Okay. We will take a look to find the section in question.

It is interesting because, in any case, the act has to be reviewed every five years, as clearly stipulated in the mandate.

[Pierre Harvey]

Moreover, why do the conventional stations in Canada, which produce 60% of original Canadian programming, not receive any royalties from the cable distributors? It is quite surprising.

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

Let us recall that the general networks in the United States are now wondering whether they will stop distributing their signal in Canada because they do not receive any royalties. It is incredible.

I have a question for Ms. Smith and Ms. Hoar, from the Vancouver online magazine, The Tyee.

First of all, Ms. Smith, I really liked your presentation. I think we have to constantly remind ourselves that the system we have, which used to worked, no longer works or does not work as well, and that it is very much in danger. We must not be too alarmist, though. Things are going well, everyone is earning a living, but it is increasingly difficult.

On the other hand, they let you down as a student by telling you that working as a journalist was pleasant. Of course, a journalism faculty would not tell all its students that they will have have to be very lucky to find a job. They would not tell its students that because it would be too discouraging, but it is true all the same.

You put the presentation you gave this morning online. One of your subscribers pointed out that, although you always write about funding, if you are writing for a group of people who want to read articles on certain subjects, there could be a risk that your inquiries always pertain to subjects those subscribers want to read about.

To get back to my question, has Minister Joly consulted you? She was in Vancouver yesterday to address modernization issues. Were you invited to Minister Joly's consultation?

[Robyn Smith]

Yes. I joined her in a discussion with about 60 other creative people in British Columbia regarding Canadian content in the digital age.

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

What do you, as a brand new, fresh organization, recommend to us?

[Michelle Hoar, Director, Publishing and Advertising, The Tyee]

First off, we're are not a brand new organization. We've been around for 13 years.

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

You are nine years old?

[Michelle Hoar]

We've been around for 13 years.

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

That's right. It was 2003.