Canadian Heritage Committee on Jan. 30th, 2024

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

I noticed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Yes.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

I moved a motion. I'll read it into the record again.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Please.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

It reads:

That, no later than April 1st 2024, the CBC provide the committee with the number of executive bonuses given, and the monetary amount of each for the fiscal year of 2023.

I'm seeking consent from the committee to have this motion accepted.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

I need unanimous consent from the committee.

Mr. Coteau.

[Michael Coteau, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

Am I allowed to ask a question on a motion?

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Yes, absolutely.

[Michael Coteau, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

Is that information public?

[Catherine Tait]

No, it's not. We do not release individual information because we are guided by the Privacy Act. We release information in aggregate.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Just to be clear, Chair, I'm not asking for a name or an identification number. I'm just asking for the number of bonuses given and the amount of each.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Mr. Noormohamed.

[Taleeb Noormohamed, Liberal, Vancouver Granville, BC]

On this point, Madam Chair, I have two things I'd like clarified.

Is that information that is ordinarily provided to the public, and is that something the CBC would be allowed to provide under statute? That's number one.

Number two, when would that determination be made so that if it's not done at that point or if it's not organized at that point...? If the CBC were to do this, is it something that would already be prepared, or would they have to do this in order to support the committee's work?

[Catherine Tait]

May I answer that, Madam Chair? May I answer the question?

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Yes.

[Catherine Tait]

The end of the fiscal year is March 31, so we'd take some time to do the assessment. Normally, we would present the results to the board at our board meeting in June.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you.

We have two more minutes left in the meeting.

I'm just going to ask if there's unanimous consent, as Ms. Thomas asked, from the committee to place her motion.

[Lisa Hepfner, Liberal, Hamilton Mountain, ON]

No, there's not.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

That's fine. There's no unanimous consent. I'm sorry.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

That's no problem. I guess we will go to a vote then. I ask that it be a recorded vote.

[Michael Coteau, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

Can I ask another question? I had my hand up.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Yes. Go ahead, Mr. Coteau.

[Michael Coteau, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

How do we have all this data? I open up the news and I'm reading a report that says this much in bonuses has gone out to this many people. How do we get that information? I know you don't connect it to a name, but the information the member is asking for seems to be available already.

[Catherine Tait]

Any Canadian can ask through access to information, and we've provided that information upon request.