Canadian Heritage Committee on Oct. 25th, 2016

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

It's London.

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

Okay, thank you.

Well, I was in Windsor one Saturday morning, listening to the news in my car. To my great surprise, the national news was followed by local news from Toronto. Does this mean that news is still in demand on the radio on Saturday mornings? Radio is often seen as a medium with less of a future, but, nonetheless, it's what people generally listen to when they're in their cars.

[Louis Lalande]

In Ontario, our strategy for the weekend is indeed a multi-station strategy. We don't yet have the resources necessary to do radio shows seven days a week during the daytime and evening. However, we have a radio presence that relies on and is intended for people just about everywhere in Ontario: the northern part of the province, Toronto, and Windsor.

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

Understood.

With respect to the digital presence, you're right to say you were the pioneers in the field. I remember it. You've been talking about radio, television and the Internet for 10 years, I'm sure.

Has the feedback from people in Kingston been good?

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

Are you referring to London?

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

Yes. I'm constantly getting the cities mixed up. You're quite right; I meant to refer to London.

[Heather Conway]

Yes, universally. It's not up and running yet, but we have met with community leaders in London to talk about what kind of service they want. It will have its own radio, as well as a digital bureau. We did talk about location so that we could ensure we were in a location that would work for the community.

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

Okay.

[Heather Conway]

It has been universally positive. This is a city that has wanted service for years and has felt underserved by the public broadcaster. It was, in fact, the next city on the list of local service extensions when we developed a plan to invest more in local.

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

Mr. Nantel, you will recall that one of the strategies in the 2015 plan was to open the public broadcaster where services were not being delivered, and where Canadians said they were underserved. In that context, new stations were opened in British Columbia and Alberta. We went to London as part of a “local services extension plan.”

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

I hope to have the opportunity to ask more questions afterwards, but in the minutes I have remaining, I'd like you to tell me how you reacted to what the three children's television creators have come out with. Incredibly, they're exploring the option of bringing ads back to children's programming. I know the Kids' CBC brand is very strong. Radio-Canada still has cartoons for children, but there are no live-action programs anymore.

Could you describe this situation to us?

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

Mr. Lalande, would you like to answer this question?

[Louis Lalande]

Actually, we're still doing Salmigondis, which is a live-action program. We're the only ones still doing one.

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

That's true. Sorry.

[Louis Lalande]

In fact...

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

My children are in their twenties. At the time, the Charles Gaudreau show was a solution to replace advertising. But that doesn't exist anymore.

[Louis Lalande]

That's a good question. Salmigondis is the only live-action type program. We do it in collaboration with Télé-Québec because we firmly believe it's important to keep this kind of programming in place.

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

And it's a success. All the young children tell me about Salmigondis.

[Louis Lalande]

Of course, and you can be sure that some of the reinvestments are going to projects for young people. Such projects are always a bit more time-consuming, but this was always clear. In fact, our reinvestment plans include a youth campaign by Tou.tv, which is a very accessible platform. We'll start with that, and develop other live-action initiatives afterwards.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you, Mr. Lalande and Mr. Nantel. I think that's it.

If we really stick to the time—and we never do—we could do another round of three minutes. I'm going to start with Mr. Maguire and Mr. Waugh, for three minutes. You are splitting it, so I'm going to have to be very sharp on your splitting here.

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

Okay. Thank you.

Mr. Lacroix, one person came before our committee and said that for about $350,000 they could set up a news unit or a new facility focusing on local news in a region. Part of what we are studying is how to do that. You indicated your efforts, and they're good, but for $150 million.... Over those four years, each year there was some consternation by these local independents that perhaps some of this funding could have helped set up some of those smaller facilities, and those funds could have been utilized in a manner that would help small independent groups get going and make them viable.

Can you comment on that? Do you see that there are enough other news sources out there as well?

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

Sir, the mandate of CBC/Radio-Canada is one that is important. It's a wide range of programming. It's about information. It's about enlightenment. It's about entertainment. That's what we focus on.

When these dollars were made available to us, that's what we focused on. We listened to what Canadians wanted us to do. We have these conversations going on all the time.

We have been under pressure, and severe financial pressure, for the last year. We have done a whole bunch of cuts trying to reshape the broadcaster and make sure we can deliver on the promise of balancing our budgets, which we did, through thick and thin.

I'll come back to a comment that I think was to Mr. O'Regan. One of the things we did not do is that we never changed our footprint. We kept every single station out there alive, because we believe in being deeply rooted in the regions. If you are not there, then you can't have the pulse of the region and you can't understand what's going on in the country.

That's what we did in this environment. That is our focus. This is what I understand the dollars to be invested in CBC/Radio-Canada are for, to be able to continue delivering on our mandate.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

You have one minute.

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

I have one minute, so I'm going to interject, if you don't mind.

The heritage minister asked for your advice about the qualities of a CBC director. We know—

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

Qualities of a what, sorry?