Canadian Heritage Committee on Oct. 25th, 2016

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you, Ms. Conway, and thank you, Mr. Waugh.

I will go to Mr. Samson.

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

My heartfelt thanks to the witnesses for being with us today. It will help us submit a report to the House that will reflect the positions expressed by the people who have appeared before us. You play an important role in that regard.

I have three questions.

Firstly, as you mentioned, the communications sector has changed dramatically. What is your plan to compete, directly or indirectly, with Netflix and CraveTV? What's your strategy to compete with them or be present in that environment? We know consumers are turning toward these stations.

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

I'm going to ask Mr. Lalande and Ms. Conway to answer that question, because the anglophone environment is characterized by programs broadcast in prime time. They are often the CBC's barometer of reference when comparisons are made between the CBC's series, and Netflix series.

[Louis Lalande]

In the francophone market, we launched the Tou.tv platform several years ago. It's worth noting that Tou.tv was launched before Netflix. We spoke about the risks CBC and Radio-Canada need to take regularly. Tou.tv is a very good example of that. We have truly introduced a way to catch up on programming that uses something different from a recorder. It's a very accessible platform that we've developed. It's certainly one of the main ways for francophones to consume television content at this time.

It's also a very interesting platform that enables young creators to develop new formats, especially in the drama segment. Tou.tv has been winning awards in all the international creation festivals, with what we call new writing. The platform enables young people to develop new formats, such as short formats in the drama segment.

Tou.tv is certainly an important element of our strategy, and it helps us achieve our main objective to stay in contact with Canadians by offering them meaningful, Canadian and original products and content, whether it be drama programming or news. That's the main challenge. I am not using the word "compete" here, because that's not our obligation.

The combined pressure on us with respect to francophone content is inevitably very difficult to absorb because anglophone content is gaining an ever-increasing foothold. We have the additional duty not only to produce French-language content, but also to ensure that it's distributed and seen. Tou.tv is one initiative in that regard.

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

I'm going to ask Heather to talk to you now about how we see this, for example, in the context of this reinvestment, how these dollars go to Canadian content and help us create content that Canadians want to watch in an environment where we are bumping into series invested in by the HBOs and the Netflixes of the world.

[Heather Conway]

Thanks, Hubert.

I don't think you can overstate the seriousness of the competition presented by the Netflixes, the Amazon Primes, the Hulus.

There were 400 new hours of English-language drama created in the last year, and 50% of it will fail. It's a level of investment that is staggering. I think most of you know the investment that Netflix makes in its series. For two seasons of House of Cards, the investment is $100 million. That's roughly the budget of English-language non-news for an entire year, and Netflix is spending that for one series. Our ability to compete with that and our need for investment in Canadian content and Canadian creators is enormous.

When we partner with those companies, as we are on Alias Grace—a great Canadian writer, Sarah Polley, is producing and writing the series, and it has a great Canadian broadcaster in CBC—the investment is about $30 million. That is something that is almost unprecedented for us in terms of the volume of dollars. If we hope to be able to compete with that kind of content, that's what we're going to have to be able to do.

As Louis says, we're going to have to invest more and more in a CBC player so that people can access that content in the way that they want to when they want to. It requires a huge investment in digital infrastructure and technology. You want to be able to provide people with the kind of viewing experience that they've become used to from the Netflixes of the world, to say, “If you liked this, you'll probably like that.” You need to be able to gather information about how people watch, what they binge watch, what they like.

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

Sorry for interrupting, but my time is limited.

Well, $675 million is certainly a major investment. I'd like to know a bit more about the action plan. Perhaps there is one, and you can summarize it for me in sixty seconds. There is talk of digital content, cultural content, Canadian content, rural communities and minorities. Those are five major themes I've noted. But I haven't heard much about minorities and culture. Mr. Lalande, how will this money be used to inject more life into those aspects?

I just gave you a concrete example. During the most recent federal election, I was the only francophone Acadian MP from Nova Scotia. I told Radio-Canada that I was going to get elected, and asked them to come do reports on the subject. No journalists from Radio-Canada showed up during the election campaign—not even on election day. However, a journalist travelled two hours to cover the province's anglophone candidates. I was very disappointed. What's more, I had to email Radio-Canada twice to ask them to pronounce my family name the French way, not the English way. This despite the fact that I had given nearly a thousand interviews to Radio-Canada over the preceding 11 years.

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

I know you made this remark to Michel Cormier when he appeared before this committee. I also know that Mr. Cormier, who is from your part of the country, apologized for it. He told everyone that the Samson family has very deep and extensive roots in Acadia. I reiterate Mr. Cormier's apology regarding the pronunciation of your name.

I will now let Mr. Lalande tell you how the invested funds will make a difference in your daily environment.

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

I'm sorry, Mr. Lalande. We'll have to move on, because we are going into a third round.

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

Madam Chair, if he doesn't answer throughout the session, maybe he can send it in writing.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

He may have a chance in the next round. We have another round. If we fill out all the parties that want to speak in that round, we may actually be able to do a four-minute round.

We're starting with Mr. Nantel.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I think that Mr. Samson wants a written apology.

[Louis Lalande]

It's a promise.

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

Mr. Lacroix, you told us that the Liberal government has asked you for an accountability process. You said it was forthcoming. You have long asked for an operating line of credit, and I imagine you will get it, or you have it, because the $75-million envelope—which everyone is talking about and calling enormous—is in reality an increase of each Canadian's contribution from $29 to $34. As far as I know, you have been asking for a $40 contribution per person per year for a long time. That amount strikes me as very reasonable, provided it's well spent.

As far as I know, you haven't received the $75 million yet. We have just had a vote and you might receive the funds within the next two weeks. You mentioned that the money will be used to fund new projects, including Canada 150. I imagine the funds will be used to test concepts that will be used for new productions. We are already hearing the difference with programs aired in the evening, including Rebecca Makonnen's program, which is part of a new slate.

I'd like to come back to the subject you were addressing when you were interrupted, namely, the upcoming cuts on the francophone side. You said there could be major job losses. Has that situation changed with the injection of new funds, which I hope you will receive shortly?

[Louis Lalande]

The evolution is that everything that needed to be announced has been announced. It's now time for the implementation. The positive side is that new expertise is coming to Radio-Canada, and it's extremely stimulating. This new expertise will help us finish what we've undertaken and move forward with our shift. Here is an example.

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

Will there be further job cuts?

[Louis Lalande]

Yes, the announced job cuts will be made, for all kinds of reasons, such as the end of L'Auberge du chien noir, a program that has aired for 13 years. Filming is expecting to end in a few weeks. Therefore—

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

Will a lot of jobs be terminated?

[Louis Lalande]

Twenty to 30 jobs.

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

You're saying 20 to 30 jobs.

[Louis Lalande]

It's not hundreds.

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

Our thoughts are with the people who will be losing their jobs.

Please continue.

[Louis Lalande]

In my view, new hires are where the biggest emphasis should be placed. A bit earlier, Mr. Lacroix spoke about the Next Generation project, a space to experiment and develop a new form of journalism. So the positions will be filled by young people whose employment status with the CBC was precarious. They are new people we trained on other projects, who went elsewhere, and are coming back to the CBC to help us develop this journalism of the future, which everyone is talking about.

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

Since we're talking about the future, perhaps Ms. Conway could answer my question.

You spoke at length about your initiatives in the Windsor market, which is moving increasingly toward digital. Sorry, was that Kingston, rather than Windsor?