Canadian Heritage Committee on April 11th, 2024

[Jamil Jivani, Conservative, Durham, ON]

I am speaking. Respect our democracy, Mr. Bibic.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Order, Mr. Bibic and Mr. Jivani.

Mr. Jivani was repeating his question because you said you didn't hear it.

Can we get back to some order here?

Mr. Jivani, repeat your question. We've stopped the clock.

[Jamil Jivani, Conservative, Durham, ON]

Thank you.

For our many constituents across Canada who are concerned that by purchasing your cell services and Internet services, they are financing a highly questionable media company that has shown callous disregard for Canadian workers and an insensitivity to many allegations of discrimination.

What do you have to say to those Canadians who are concerned about financing Bell Media?

[Mirko Bibic]

Madam Chair, I have deep respect for Parliament and for the committee's work, and I would never pretend to have not heard a question if I'd heard it. That I take issue with, and I just wanted to make that clear. If I say something, it's because I mean it.

Now, earlier, the honourable member asked me about diversity and the importance of it, and I gave a considered answer. It's a very important issue, and we are proud of the journey we're on in that regard—

[Jamil Jivani, Conservative, Durham, ON]

Are you evading the question again after pretending you didn't hear it? I repeated it and you're still not answering it, Mr. Bibic.

[Mirko Bibic]

We're very proud of the services we provide to Canadians who subscribe. Millions of customers are with us, and we deliver excellent value to them.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you.

I think we have gone over the time there, so I'm now going to Mr. Coteau for two minutes, please.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Sir, you mentioned that Bell is a good, Canadian company and you focus on the client. The client is the focus.

It's this very Parliament that established your company over 150 years ago.

I would estimate that billions of dollars have been invested by Canadians into Bell. Not only have they invested money, but they've given you special treatment for monopolies in certain areas. They've contributed to your success, helping to develop the spectrum and helping to invest in your company to continue to build.

You have an obligation, I believe, to Canadians to do what's best for them. Therefore, when a company is making $2.3 billion in profit and it is removing the very fabric of our news system in this country, it's a bit hard for Canadians to accept, considering the investments.

You said earlier that Unifor was on board with this process. I was really disturbed when I read a news report that quoted Unifor, saying this was a very shameful act by Bell to hand over pink slips for many years of devotion by your workforce.

In fact, Christopher Corsi, your human resources and labour relations manager, held a 10-minute meeting to fire 400 people online, using Zoom. If you're not going protect Canadian workers and your workforce, at least respect them. When I read that you actually took that course of action to fire 400 people online together, without even allowing them to ask questions—this is coming from Unifor; I've read the article—to me that is shameful.

Canadians have invested in your company, and they continue to invest in your company. This very Parliament established your company. I think you—

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

We are now over time, Mr. Coteau.

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

—as a company could have done things better.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Mr. Bibic, give a very quick answer.

[Mirko Bibic]

Having group video meetings with employees who found themselves in similar situations and similar positions allowed us to communicate key information to them all at the same time. While it's not a perfect process, the benefit was that it allowed all employees to find out at the same time so that we wouldn't have the situation whereby the first individual found out first and the last individual found out hours or days later, and would then have the anxiety of not knowing what was happening, other than through the rumour mill.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you, Mr. Bibic.

I'm going to go to Martin Champoux.

Martin, you have two minutes.

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Mr. Bibic, the new president of Bell Media recently said that diversity within Bell is important, and that's a good thing. He said that the company wants half of the programs it is commissioning this year to be generated by Black, indigenous, visible minority and under-represented creators. I totally agree with him about diversity and inclusion, but I also agree on fairness.

I imagine that Bell is used to quotas, for example for francophone content on the radio, but don't you think it would be preferable for the company to stand out as the one that takes action to ensure that all communities, including under-represented communities, have access to the content creation and acquisition process, rather than having ratios that can lead to some discrimination in an environment where the percentage of creators from those communities may not be around 50%, for example?

Don't you think it would be better to come up with ways to make the content creation and acquisition processes accessible to as many people as possible?

[Mirko Bibic]

Thank you for your question.

We work closely with a number of independent producers, which enables us to produce and broadcast high-quality series, such as Aller simple, Chouchou, In Memoriam—a fantastic series—Entre deux draps, L'aréna, L'empereur, and so on. All of this is possible because we work closely with a number of Canadian producers across the country, including Quebec, of course.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you very much.

Niki, you have two minutes, please.

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

Just looking at today's committee.... The disconnect that we've heard from Bell is staggering. It's a company worth $40 billion, a company with a CEO who made $13 million last year and, at the same time, agreed to laying off thousands of workers—6,000 jobs—over an eight-month period. It has gutted local news and shut down 45 radio stations, leaving major and smaller centres in our country without the local news that they deserve. In a province like mine, on the telecom side of things, we've seen costs go up and service go down. Across the country, Canadian customers are paying some of the highest cellphone rates in the world.

How much is enough? How much profit is enough? How much in CEO paybacks and profit is enough? How much in dividends is enough?

This didn't just happen. Bell's business approach has left Canadians worse off. It is part of an oligopoly, cheerled on by Liberals and Conservatives over the years, that has sought to make greater and greater profits at the expense of workers and Canadians across the board.

What we heard today, right from the desire to shut down...why we hadn't heard from Bell when we should have heard from Bell to the fact that it took forever to find out exactly what notice was given to the federal government.... I should note that we have since heard that Unifor only found out on February 8 that the layoffs were about to happen.

That is not respect. That is not a company that values the workers that work for it. Certainly, the costs that Canadians are paying show that this isn't a company that values what Canadians give to it either.

Canadian workers deserve better. First nations, rural and northern communities—like the ones I represent and those across the country—that work with Bell deserve better. Canadians who deserve local news told to them by the people based in their communities deserve better.

We hope that Bell will change course, will rehire workers it has laid off, will reinvest in local broadcasting and will bring down the rates, as Canadians deserve. Canadians deserve better.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

I would now like to thank the witnesses for being here.

I am going to adjourn the meeting, because we have to go to a vote. That's why I've been hurrying you along in the last couple of minutes.

Thank you very much to the witnesses. It was a tough meeting, but I thank everyone.

We are adjourned.