I know that.
Evidence of meeting #8 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 video is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #8 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 video is available from Parliament.
10:10 a.m.
Vice President, Broadcasting Policy and Regulatory Affairs, TELUS
—to the extent that we don't own any licensed programming service.
In our community programming service, however, we do have people who manage that service. Frédéric April is here. He manages the Quebec maCommunauté side. We have others that manage the Optik local.
10:10 a.m.
Vice President, Broadcasting Policy and Regulatory Affairs, TELUS
How many managers?
10:10 a.m.
Conservative
10:10 a.m.
Vice President, Broadcasting Policy and Regulatory Affairs, TELUS
Employed? Probably about 20 or so, let's say—
10:10 a.m.
Conservative
Kevin Waugh Conservative Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK
Across the country and in Quebec, Alberta and B.C.?
10:10 a.m.
Vice President, Broadcasting Policy and Regulatory Affairs, TELUS
—who manage the actual service.
But as I indicated, for the production of the programming, we rely on independent producers whom we fund. These are producers—
10:10 a.m.
Vice President, Broadcasting Policy and Regulatory Affairs, TELUS
We fund them.
10:10 a.m.
Conservative
10:10 a.m.
Vice President, Broadcasting Policy and Regulatory Affairs, TELUS
That's correct.
10:10 a.m.
Conservative
10:10 a.m.
Vice President, Broadcasting Policy and Regulatory Affairs, TELUS
Overall per year?
10:10 a.m.
Vice President, Broadcasting Policy and Regulatory Affairs, TELUS
Somewhere around $7 million last year.
10:10 a.m.
Conservative
Kevin Waugh Conservative Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK
You're a little different from Bell, I think, and from Rogers and certainly Shaw, because you're more of an Internet provider and now you're into this Optik TV. My question is, you just got into Quebec, as we've seen, so do you offer local news in both English and French in the province of Quebec?
10:10 a.m.
Vice President, Broadcasting Policy and Regulatory Affairs, TELUS
I'd like to point out that in Quebec we offer our Optik TV service only in certain areas, not across the province. Those areas are mostly around Rimouski. There's not a lot of demand for English-language programming in those areas.
10:10 a.m.
Conservative
Kevin Waugh Conservative Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK
Yes, which we've just heard from your previous people.
Will you offer English, then? Being you are a carrier, it is your responsibility, I think, in front of this commission. You go to see the CRTC. I think it is your responsibility to serve the province of Quebec, since you've moved into Quebec, and that you serve it in both languages.
10:10 a.m.
Vice President, Broadcasting Policy and Regulatory Affairs, TELUS
We certainly offer all of the programming services available in Quebec so that all of our subscribers have access to every single news service and other programming services in French and in English. We operate a full complement of all programming services: CTV, TVA, and all of the services. There's no doubt about that.
In our community programming service, however, in the city of Rimouski, for example, at this point all of the applications that have come to us for the creation of programming have been in French. Should we receive any applications for creating English-language programming, we would be more than happy to entertain that request.
10:10 a.m.
Conservative
Kevin Waugh Conservative Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK
But as a carrier isn't it your responsibility to reach out to the community? You've talked about your management level, which is fine. We've seen a lot of management levels in broadcasting in this country, but how about those on the ground? We've just heard from the Quebec people before you that there are no broadcasters coming up in the province of Quebec. What are you doing to help out that industry?
10:10 a.m.
Vice President, Broadcasting Policy and Regulatory Affairs, TELUS
From our community programming service?
10:10 a.m.
Conservative
Kevin Waugh Conservative Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK
Yes, from your community. What are you doing to nourish the broadcasters of the business?
10:15 a.m.
Vice President, Broadcasting Policy and Regulatory Affairs, TELUS
We do a significant amount of outreach to find the local producers that are in our communities. At this time, those producers do happen to be francophones, as I've said, given the regions we serve.
Once we move into larger metropolitan areas, that may very well change, and we do intend to serve our communities in the languages of the community. For example, in Vancouver we offer services in numerous languages, including French, English, and Mandarin. We do spend an awful lot of time in understanding who we are serving and in serving them to the best of our abilities. It just so happens that the region we serve happens to be very, very francophone.
10:15 a.m.
Conservative
Kevin Waugh Conservative Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK
That's good.
Now, do you pay anybody locally? You mentioned that you have 20 managers across Canada, so you're into community TV. Do you pay anyone other than the producers to put something on YouTube or Optik TV?
Does anyone operate cameras for you? You have no studio, nothing...or what do you have?