I believe so.
Evidence of meeting #115 for Canadian Heritage in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was company.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #115 for Canadian Heritage in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was company.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:20 p.m.
Liberal
5:20 p.m.
Liberal
Taleeb Noormohamed Liberal Vancouver Granville, BC
Do you know what happened to her and the entirety of your London bureau?
5:20 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, BCE Inc.
Yes. The foreign news bureaus were closed last year, which isn't uncommon. CBS just shut down its Tokyo news bureau after 60-plus years.
That gives you an example that the media ecosystem—news, in particular, and conventional broadcasting—no matter in which country we're talking about, is under immense stress.
5:20 p.m.
Liberal
Taleeb Noormohamed Liberal Vancouver Granville, BC
How do you plan to report the news from a G7 capital like London to Canadians without having reporters on the ground?
5:20 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, BCE Inc.
In many cases, we'll use independent journalists or we'll send our own journalist to the locality as news happens. It's no different, as an example, from when we sent our correspondents from the London office to cover the war in Ukraine; now we'll send somebody from Toronto. Somebody is travelling in any case.
5:20 p.m.
Liberal
Taleeb Noormohamed Liberal Vancouver Granville, BC
Let's say news was breaking at 10 Downing Street. From the moment you find out there's a crisis happening in the U.K., or, God forbid, the untimely death of a monarch, how long would it take CTV to be able to report from the ground with one of your reporters?
5:20 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, BCE Inc.
I'm not sure it would be a shock to anybody that it's extremely expensive to cover news like that all around the world. When a company like CBS has to shut down a long-standing news bureau, I don't think it should be a surprise that a smaller Canadian company will shut down its foreign—
5:20 p.m.
Liberal
Taleeb Noormohamed Liberal Vancouver Granville, BC
Mr. Bibic, CBS doesn't go to the U.S. government with its hand out, saying, “Help us.” You do that to the federal government, and we help you because we believe in ensuring that there is a strong news ecosystem in this country.
5:20 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, BCE Inc.
No. All we're asking for is a level regulatory playing field against Netflix, Amazon—
5:20 p.m.
Liberal
Taleeb Noormohamed Liberal Vancouver Granville, BC
You now have that through legislation that you supported.
My question to you is—
5:20 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, BCE Inc.
Not at all, because those companies don't contribute to the Canadian ecosystem in any manner, shape or form in terms of content production.
5:20 p.m.
Liberal
Taleeb Noormohamed Liberal Vancouver Granville, BC
You came before government and you said, “We're going to take a $40-million hit in our newsroom.” The response was to give you a $40-million break.
5:20 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, BCE Inc.
That's not how it transpired, actually.
5:20 p.m.
Liberal
5:20 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, BCE Inc.
No, that's not at all how it transpired. We already air significantly more news than the required regulatory minimum. The—
5:20 p.m.
Liberal
Taleeb Noormohamed Liberal Vancouver Granville, BC
You keep saying you air significantly more news. I come from Vancouver. Your footprint for news in Vancouver is, to put it charitably, a shell of its former self. You eliminated 1,300 positions on Vancouver Island over the course of time. These are not insignificant impacts to communities.
5:20 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, BCE Inc.
We never would have had 1,300 Bell Media employees—
5:20 p.m.
Liberal
Taleeb Noormohamed Liberal Vancouver Granville, BC
Well, then perhaps your own reporting is incorrect, because—
5:20 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, BCE Inc.
—on Vancouver Island. Bell Media has 5,000 people.
5:20 p.m.
Liberal
Taleeb Noormohamed Liberal Vancouver Granville, BC
Okay. I apologize, the number is not correct.
You've laid off people in significant numbers in small communities and in large communities on Vancouver Island. I'm asking you because this is an opportunity for you to explain to Canadians how you justify taking large bonuses and paying well-paid executives at the same time you are telling Canadians, “Thank you so much for the help you provide us. We're going to lay off the journalists who provide news from your communities.” Don't tell me that it's because you're going to be able to use independent journalists from here, there and everywhere. How do you create viable opportunity for real journalists to be in the field doing the jobs they do from small communities like the ones Mr. Waugh described?
5:20 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, BCE Inc.
Well, we should create a level regulatory playing field on which the foreign web giants who draw so much from Canada would be required to contribute, including to the production of news, but to Canadian content. We should have major advertisers like the federal government devoting more of their advertising budget to Canadian broadcasters. We should also think of taking actions like—
5:20 p.m.
Liberal
5:20 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, BCE Inc.
—eliminating the tax deductibility of advertising on foreign platforms.