Canadian Heritage Committee on Oct. 20th, 2016

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

What are your thoughts on Facebook? This current government has spent $3.6 million on Facebook in eight months, more than from 2008 to 2015. They sit here and talk about how bad the media in this country are, but $3.6 million has gone to the United States.

[Jean-Pierre Blais]

I don't purport to be an expert on Facebook advertising, other than as an occasional user of advertising services to get Canadians to come to our hearings.

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

They can come, but they won't talk.

[Jean-Pierre Blais]

We want to reach everyone, so we always have a multi-platform approach. That's because Canadians are on various platforms. We have used Facebook as a means of getting part of the demographic in Canada interested in our proceedings, but we also use print and other platforms.

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

We had a group here from Forum for Research and Policy in Communications. Just very quickly—

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

You have one minute.

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

Parliament needs facts, not guesswork. The CRTC should consult with the public in the next year to revise your data collection.

Second, if Parliament wants Canadians to have access to broadcast news, there must be an enforceable level to local news in this country.

Third, Parliament ought to know if the objectives of its communication systems are met.

I'd like your comments on those three things.

[Jean-Pierre Blais]

There are two things are. We publish probably what is the highest standard of reference in terms of facts and data on communications systems annually. We invite anybody to use that. It's quite an extensive report. It's called the Communication Monitoring Report. It's going to be issued soon, in a couple weeks. In that, we invite stakeholders that might want to improve it to come to us and suggest ways of improving. In fact, every year it gets bigger, deeper, and more complex. We would welcome any comments on making that better.

On making firm obligations, that's the very subject matter of our upcoming hearings in November. That will be the subject in part of what we will be discussing with the private sector TV licensees.

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

Good. Are you going to stay around after five years?

[Jean-Pierre Blais]

That's not my decision.

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

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you, Mr. Waugh.

Now we go to Mr. Nantel for the New Democratic Party.

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

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

Thank you for being here, Mr. Blais. We are happy to see you. We speak of you often. So we are pleased that you are here. We would like to see you more often, especially during this study.

It is true that we have talked about the print media a lot during this study. We have also talked a lot about local news.

First, I have to ask you why Mr. Pentefountas has not yet been replaced. How do you explain that, given the current situation and the tumult in which our threatened system finds itself? We just have to think about ADISQ, for example, which is concerned about the large broadcasters’ demand to reduce quotas. However, there is no lack of intelligent minds and experts.

[Jean-Pierre Blais]

Thank you for your question, Mr. Nantel.

I follow what goes on in Parliament. So I saw that you took the opportunity to ask that question to the Minister of Canadian Heritage. She is the right person to answer questions about appointments, because, under the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission Act, appointments to the commission are clearly made by the government on the recommendation of the minister.

We have no other role than to extend a warm welcome to new members, to train them and to support them as they do their work.

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

We know about your experience. You worked for a long time in the Department of Canadian Heritage and you helped to consolidate the efforts that have been made on the quota system over about the last 45 years. The word “quota” sometimes seems taboo, but it is what has allowed Quebec culture and Canadian culture to become distinct and find their place. They have reached maturity. We see that with shows like Orphan Black or people like Xavier Dolan. The studios are full. Production studios often are doing sub-productions for the United States, but it is still our expertise, and that is important.

However, we have the impression that you are constantly avoiding the matter of the Canada's Broadcasting Act and the Television Broadcasting Regulations1987. That is the elephant in the room and it is getting bigger each year, like the screens in the middle of this room. It is never talked about, and yet all the witnesses that we have seen here have told us how much online competition is attacking their business plans.

Let’s take your recent decision on the new broadcasting distribution undertakings, the BDUs. You told them to try to put local news on their online platforms. You said that in a community context. Your presentation reassures us in terms of our communities, but I can tell you that it does not reassure people in community television because they are clearly going to lose a source of funding.

Other decisions are pushing people to the Web. The non-intervention in the face of the major online players who are providing services through the back door means that our BDUs are going towards the new platforms.

As for television, you have added flexibility of access to smaller television packages, which also pushes viewers to the Web. That concerns me. Everyone in the production world is scratching their heads and wondering what is coming. If their production funding is fed by contributions from a part of the monthly payments for television distribution, it is going to keep decreasing.

[Jean-Pierre Blais]

There seem to be two questions there, one of which is about the Broadcasting Act. The CRTC’s mandate is to implement the legislation that you as parliamentarians have voted for. It is up to you to decide whether the act has to be updated. Our role at the commission is to implement and put in place what you as parliamentarians have entrusted to the commission as an administrative tribunal.

We are going through a period of unprecedented change in terms of broadband connectivity. That changes the way in which traditional telecommunications companies deliver voices. One might even say that telecommunications services deliver much more than that these days. Some young people do not even use their phones to make phone calls. That changes business models.

Today, the biggest taxi company in the world owns not a single taxi. I am referring to Uber. The biggest hotel company in the world, Airbnb, owns not a single hotel. This is a very significant movement. Some have talked about a fourth industrial revolution. The words “the age of disruption” are often used to describe it.

With radio and television broadcasting, we must realize that a major change is on the horizon. The way in which people consume audiovisual product is being turned on its head all over the world, in Canada in particular, for both anglophones and francophones. Some people feel comfortable applying old mechanisms like quotas as a solution for a new ecosystem. That’s where I part company with them.

A few decades ago, when there were 10 television channels, and a quota was imposed, the chances were good that people would watch. In today's environment, we have to think of other ways.

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

That is why I agree with you.

[Jean-Pierre Blais]

We hosted a discoverability conference. The view expressed there was that we had to emphasize promotion, marketing and the need to distribute products made by Canadians, very good products, not only in Canada but all around the world. If—

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

Forgive me for interrupting you, Mr. Blais, but I only have a minute left.

You are quite right. The model has changed indeed, and it is imperative that we change ours as quickly as possible.

In terms of funding, the situation is a problem. The river really is going to run dry.

[Jean-Pierre Blais]

After a public, transparent and evidence-based process, the commission has come to the conclusion that there is still a lot of money in the system. Tax credits are available and broadcasters continue to produce for their traditional platforms.

However, we must insist on the need to make the transition. With that said, we have not yet reached a crisis point.

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

Well...

[Jean-Pierre Blais]

That may not be your point of view, but—

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

Listen, between five and 10 million Canadians are using Netflix.

[Jean-Pierre Blais]

Yes.

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

That means that one third of the population is no longer watching our content, which is simply not available on the platform.