Canadian Heritage Committee on Feb. 13th, 2024

[Colette Brin]

However, that is not necessarily the case in every province and I am more concerned for other regions of the country.

I do not want to say that everything is fine in Quebec and you should not help us. That is certainly not what I mean.

[Patricia Lattanzio, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Thank you, Ms. Brin.

Madam Chair, I'm going to cede the few seconds I have left to my colleague.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Mr. Noormohamed, you can do it in two seconds, but I'm going to cut you off in two seconds.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Taleeb Noormohamed, Liberal, Vancouver Granville, BC]

Okay. Thank you, Madam Chair.

With the time left, I would like to table the motion that I circulated to all in this committee. It's been circulated by the clerk. I would like to read that motion. It has been presented already.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Yes, I understand it has been circulated. Would you like to read it for the record?

[Taleeb Noormohamed, Liberal, Vancouver Granville, BC]

If you'll permit me, I will do that, Madam Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Go ahead.

[Taleeb Noormohamed, Liberal, Vancouver Granville, BC]

Thank you. Regrettably, it was not printed. I have it here in electronic form. I will read it now.

Given announced plans to layoff 4,800 employees, Bell Canada Enterprises’ largest such set of layoffs in nearly 30 years, directly impacting a minimum of 4,800 families across Canada and significantly harming access in Canada to local journalism and thus significantly damaging the democratic discourse, pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), the committee call on the executive leadership of Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE) to testify for a minimum of two hours to discuss the announced cuts.

The meeting should take place no later than March 1, 2024, and witnesses called are Mirko Bibic, President and CEO, BCE Inc. and Bell Canada; Sean Cohan, President Bell Media; Blaik Kirby, Group President, Consumer and Small and Medium Business; Curtis Millen, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, BCE and Bell Canada; Karine Moses, Senior Vice President, Content Development and News, and Vice Chair, Québec; and Nikki Moffat, Executive Vice President, Corporate Services, and Chief Human Resources Officer.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you.

Go ahead, Ms. Ashton.

[Niki Ashton, NDP, Churchill—Keewatinook Aski, MB]

We support this motion. I would also like to propose an amendment to the motion.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Go ahead.

[Niki Ashton, NDP, Churchill—Keewatinook Aski, MB]

It's also been circulated.

The committee also calls on the Minister of Heritage and the Minister of Industry for one hour each to explain their response to these devastating job cuts that will affect thousands of workers, the fight against disinformation and access to local news for communities across the country.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you.

Now we will discuss the amendment.

Go ahead, Martin.

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I do not support the amendment proposed by the NDP. First, it is not related. We want to meet with the representatives of Bell and get answers from them. We want to devote a session to this meeting with the executive leadership of Bell. There are going to be a lot of people around the table, in particular Bell people in Toronto and Bell people in Montreal. We are going to be able to talk about the cuts outside the urban centres and the impacts of those cuts.

If we also invite the ministers to join in, the meeting is never going to end. As well, if we want to do a study on everything that led to the cuts, that is different, but it is going to need more than one meeting. As a result, if the NDP wants to move a motion to ask the ministers to appear on that subject, I see no objection to that, but we can discuss that in connection with a separate motion.

In the case of this motion, we want a meeting with Bell executives to get an explanation of this decision. I do not think there is room to invite more people.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you, Martin. You're speaking against the amendment.

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

That's correct.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Is there any further discussion?

[Taleeb Noormohamed, Liberal, Vancouver Granville, BC]

I'd like to echo what Mr. Champoux said. The purpose of the motion we put forward was to be non-partisan, clear and concise, and to remove the politics from this and put Bell in the hot seat.

As Mr. Champoux said, I'm not sure bringing the minister in to answer questions on corporate decisions is particularly helpful at this time on this particular issues.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you.

Is there any further discussion?

Go ahead, Mrs. Thomas.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

We are actually in support of the NDP's amendment. I haven't seen it, so I'm just wondering if it has been circulated.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

I haven't seen it either. She read it out.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

The Liberals often ask if they can have a couple minutes to confirm. Before we go to a vote, I would ask for the same courtesy.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you. We're going to suspend for a few minutes—

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

First, I have a point of order, Madam Chair.