Canadian Heritage Committee on Jan. 30th, 2024

[Catherine Tait]

I think it's 10 out of 10.

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

It's nine out of 10.

[Catherine Tait]

Oh, there you go.

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

Of those 10 programs, how many do you think were produced by Radio-Canada?

[Catherine Tait]

I think it's six or four.

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

That's right, it's six.

[Catherine Tait]

There you go.

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

That shows you to what extent, in Quebec in particular, but also in the francophonie across Canada, people are attached to this vehicle to promote culture, which needs to be protected and supported. That is also how francophones and Quebeckers see themselves reflected on television. They don't see themselves in American television, unlike in English Canada. I am not saying that American television reflects exactly what English Canada is, but there are more similarities than for Quebeckers.

Do you take that into consideration when you make decisions like the ones you seem to be about to make—that is to say to cut Radio-Canada's French services like this?

[Catherine Tait]

Absolutely, we take all of that into account.

It must be said that, if you look at the market shares of the CBC, CTV and Global in the anglophone market, they amount to 20% of the market.

We know very well that the anglophone market is fragmented and hyper-competitive. You have to look at all of the CBC's services: We're number one in 17 markets out of 22 for CBC radio, and number one in digital services, as well.

Of course, the success of television for the francophone market is tremendous. Also, it's very rare; there are very few markets around the world that have that kind of success. It absolutely has to be protected, and—

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

Absolutely, but that's not what you're doing.

[Catherine Tait]

—that is why Radio-Canada keeps its own revenues earned in its markets. All of the revenues earned for Radio-Canada television are kept by the Radio-Canada team.

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

I hope so, quite frankly.

[Catherine Tait]

I mention this because there is a perception that revenues are shared, when that is not at all the case. Both services keep their own commercial revenues.

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

Do you feel that Radio-Canada is currently adequately funded to carry out its mission to serve the francophone regions of Quebec and Canada, both in terms of news programs and variety programs? Do you think that, after the upcoming budget cuts, you will be able to continue providing these services to Quebeckers and Canadians?

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Can we have a quick answer, please. We're over time.

[Catherine Tait]

I will ask Ms. Meloul to answer that question.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Ms. Meloul.

[Dany Meloul, Executive Vice-President, Radio-Canada, CBC/Radio-Canada]

Thank you, Madam Chair and Mr. Champoux.

We are very, very careful. As part of that process, we take the time needed to determine where to make cuts. For example, some content or programming is coming to an end, which is normal. It happens every year. Some programs will not be renewed. The important thing is to make sure that the breadth of coverage and entertainment—

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you, Ms. Meloul. You can expand on that at another time. We are well over time on this question.

I'll go to the New Democrats and Peter Julian for six minutes, please.

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

I want to thank the people from CBC/Radio-Canada for their quality journalism. On November 2, we discussed the importance of the Broadcasting Act to counter disinformation from the far right, which often tries to flood our country. So I highly commend the journalists.

When you came on November 2, Ms. Tait, you gave us no indication whatsoever that cuts may be made. However, you just said in your testimony that you told your employees about the situation in October.

When you appeared before our committee in November, did you already know that there would be an announcement of this magnitude—concerning a 10% cut—in December?

[Catherine Tait]

As I said earlier, we announced to our employees in early October that we had a deficit problem for 2024-25. Even before we appeared before your committee, I spoke at length about this problem before the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal in a speech entitled “A world without Radio-Canada”. So it was very clear that I had that concern. It was in the media. I did not mention it at our meeting on November 2 because we were talking about another topic then, as you will recall.

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

Yes, but you also understand that we were shocked to hear, a few weeks later, that these cuts were announced.

Have you had any discussions at all with the federal government on how best to support the CBC/Radio-Canada since that time, or since it became clear that these issues are going to lead to cuts?

[Catherine Tait]

Absolutely. We have discussions with the government on a regular basis. We talk about our budgets, our challenges and, above all, the structural deficit that has existed for five years. When my team and I saw that we were going to have a problem for 2024-25, I alerted the government in July. Since then, we have spoken a number of times about the challenge posed to us by the 3.3% reduction in the budget allocated to us by the federal government. We also talked about the need to address the $125-million deficit. So the government is well aware of our problem.

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

For the time being, there is no follow-up on its part.

In addition, as I have already mentioned to this committee, the federal government continues to indirectly subsidize large multinationals such as Meta and Google by spending $1 billion a year on advertising on their platforms, when we need reliable news sources and we know that Meta is funding disinformation. It's beyond me.

I want to come back to the issue that Ms. Thomas raised about the bonuses and give you the opportunity to respond. I thought it was a little rude not to give you the opportunity to give us the number of executive bonuses for last year. I'll have some comments to make after that.

What is the actual number of performance pay bonuses that were granted last year?

[Catherine Tait]

I'm going to ask Marco to answer that question.