Evidence of meeting #29 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 media.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Pierre Breton Liberal Shefford, QC
You didn't break down the results by gender, place of residence, or otherwise. Your analysis didn't take those factors into account?
Director General, Broadcasting and Digital Communications, Department of Canadian Heritage
The province of residence is the only factor that we asked people to identify. From a segmentation perspective, that's it.
Liberal
Pierre Breton Liberal Shefford, QC
Okay.
I think it would be worthwhile to do a more in-depth analysis of the results, which collectively make up a whole.
Nevertheless, I'd like you to speak to the challenges facing the cultural sector. Mr. Waugh mentioned some of the more notable differences. Talk to us about what surprised you. What stood out to you? Even though you didn't do a detailed analysis along the lines of what we just talked about, you no doubt analyzed some of the results. Tell us, if you would, about one or two things in the results that were rather surprising to you. It would be interesting to hear your comments on that.
Director General, Broadcasting and Digital Communications, Department of Canadian Heritage
For the most part, the results were not all that surprising, to be honest with you. They align with the views that we hear in other fora—for example, at CRTC proceedings and even before this committee. In large measure there weren't surprises.
I think there was some interesting feedback in terms of the importance of promoting Canadian content abroad and the importance of having Canadian content that's able to stand out. Those findings were quite interesting. People were asked to come up a level and to think about Canadian content more generally, as opposed to what they wanted?
Among the most urgent challenges facing the cultural sector, the public responses identified foreign competition and making content stand out online as very important ones. There was also a clear indication that CBC plays a very important role, particularly in providing news and information programming.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Thank you, Ms. Kennedy.
Thank you, Mr. Breton.
I will go to Mr. Nantel for five minutes.
NDP
Pierre Nantel NDP Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Earlier, I mentioned the Rogers family, which is at the helm of a Canadian company that chose to build networks such as Cantel. I have been a Rogers customer for 22 years, because its system is reliable and well-designed for our country's needs and geographic location.
Nowadays, the same companies are trying to tailor their products to Canadians' tastes. But we shouldn't expect Canadians to scratch their heads and ask for more Canadian content; we shouldn't expect that to be something they are concerned about. Nor should we expect them to stand up and proclaim they don't like James Bond movies or the show Orange Is the New Black, which everyone watches.
There seems to be a certain naïveté about this consultation, which, I would remind everyone, is anonymous. I don't see the point in that. Earlier, Mr. Breton said that we should be able to get more information. You mentioned that the province of residence of the survey respondents was known. I find all of this extremely frustrating, because, for a long time now, I have had high hopes for this consultation.
Whenever the opportunity arose to meet with one of our major players, I would tell them that I knew they wore several hats but that it would be beneficial to hear them talk about each of their roles. It would be beneficial to hear from the person in charge of media content and television production, to hear from them that they were having a rough time, that the competition was taking over the market. It would be beneficial to hear from the person in charge of broadband service hookups, to hear them say that, from a Netflix standpoint, everything was going quite well. That's the reality of these companies.
Bear in mind also that, a year or two ago, Mr. Dion sat on this very committee. He asked a Bell representative about FACTOR and the steps that needed to be taken in the case of MUSICACTION to bring in money, because there were no radio transactions.
The Bell representative basically said that Internet access functions could potentially be sufficient. Today, that's what ADISQ is calling for. Online merchants anticipate the need to regulate the service and collect a tax. Bell and all the big media companies are asking to be on a level playing field with the big providers. Could they at least pay sales taxes? That is rather basic, after all.
With that in mind, I have three questions for you. Before the consultations end, will we find out who is sitting at the adults' table and who is sitting at the kids' table? Will we find out who is invited and how to get an invitation? We need to make sure that all of our stakeholders are represented.
How does the process work? Many people are wondering, and many realize that the situation is urgent. It's as though we're dancing on the Titanic. What are we doing, then, to fix the hole in the ship's hull?
Director General, Broadcasting and Digital Communications, Department of Canadian Heritage
As I said before,
it's an extremely open process with a number of ways to participate.
The in-person events are just one of the ways. There are meetings with the stakeholders on the side of those events. The stakeholders—
Director General, Broadcasting and Digital Communications, Department of Canadian Heritage
The lists are developed for the invitations. I'd have to get back to you—
Director General, Broadcasting and Digital Communications, Department of Canadian Heritage
—in terms of whether or not they're being made public.
There's a real effort to ensure that there is a broad range of representation at the table. The events are aimed at about 60 participants. They're aiming to get a broad range of participants. It's stakeholders, but it's also academia, it's artists, it's creators.
For example, at a round table you might not have the executive director of the Writers Guild, but you'll have a member of the guild, whereas a meeting with the Writers Guild will happen—
NDP
Pierre Nantel NDP Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC
Yes. We were all happy to hear Ms. Smith, the young reporter from The Tyee, say that she participated.
Director General, Broadcasting and Digital Communications, Department of Canadian Heritage
Yes.
NDP
Pierre Nantel NDP Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC
That is great. I'm not saying this is like a total darkness, but I cannot see what's going on, and I think all industry players need to know that transparency will be addressed.
Director General, Broadcasting and Digital Communications, Department of Canadian Heritage
Right. The other point to make is that when you choose to participate through the web portal, it is public. That's a very public way of participating.
Pierre Nantel NDP Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC
What do you mean by “the web portal”? Do you mean if George Cope wants to participate, he can go on the web portal?
Director General, Broadcasting and Digital Communications, Department of Canadian Heritage
Well, anybody can go on the web portal. There are different ways to do it. You can do a blog. You can write a submission. You can upload a story. That's the sense in which I was making the point that everybody can participate through the web portal. There are different ways of participating.
NDP
Director General, Broadcasting and Digital Communications, Department of Canadian Heritage
Well, exactly. He may write his own submission or tell his own story.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Thank you.
I think we've come to the end of that part. Before I thank the witnesses, I have one question I'd like to ask.
You said the people in your online survey were self-selected. Obviously the people who are interested would go on it, but it also is limiting, and I want to know your response to that. We know that we don't have broadband. Only people who can be online will participate. Does that limit the participation? That's the first question.
Second, we talked about a diversity of voices. We've heard from many ethnic newspapers, ethnic media, that they are very disadvantaged in terms of advertising, in terms of everything. They're not a player. Will they be involved in the consultations? Will they be specifically chosen to be involved? I'm referring to linguistic and ethnic minorities.
Director General, Broadcasting and Digital Communications, Department of Canadian Heritage
On the first question with respect to access to the online survey, we did send out paper copies of the surveys to people who asked for them, so I note that.
With respect to the ethnic media, yes, we are looking at a broad range of intervenors, a broad range of participants. That will include, as I said, people from all of the media sectors.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Thank you very much to the witnesses and the committee members for participating so passionately—Mr. Nantel—in this discussion.
I will now entertain a motion to adjourn.
Go ahead, Mr. Van Loan.
