Thank you.
Welcome to meeting number 118 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage.
I want to acknowledge that this meeting is taking place on the unceded traditional territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe people.
Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2) and the motions adopted by the committee on December 7, 2023, and March 19, 2024, the committee is resuming its study of job cuts announced at CBC/Radio-Canada.
Before we begin, I want to remind all members and other meeting participants in the room of the following preventative procedures.
To prevent disruptive and potentially harmful audio feedback incidents that can cause injuries, all in-person participants are reminded to keep their earpieces away from all microphones at all times.
As indicated in the communiqué from the Speaker's office to all members on Monday, April 29, the following measures have been taken to prevent audio feedback incidents.
All earpieces have been replaced by a new model that reduces the possibility of feedback. The new earpieces are black, whereas the former earpieces were grey. Please only use a black approved earpiece.
By default, all unused earpieces will be unplugged at the beginning of the meeting.
When you're not using your earpiece, please place it face down on the middle of the sticker for this purpose that you will find on the table; there's a little round sticker with a funny looking thing that I think is representative of an earpiece.
Please consult the cards on the table for guidelines to prevent audio feedback incidents. There's a little card here called “Guidelines for Meeting Participants”.
The room layout has been adjusted to increase the distance between microphones and reduce the chance of feedback from an ambient earpiece.
These measures are in place so we can conduct our business without interruption and protect the health and safety of all participants, including the interpreters, because we have had some serious incidents involving interpreters with regard to this issue.
I want to make a few comments for the benefit of members.
Please wait until I recognize you by name before speaking. Please go through the chair when you're asking or answering questions. For members in the room, please raise your hand if you wish to speak. For members on Zoom, please use the “raise hand” function in the chat room.
I would now like to welcome our witnesses.
We welcome once again Ms. Catherine Tait, who is president and chief executive officer of CBC/Radio-Canada, and Marco Dubé, chief transformation officer and executive vice-president, people and culture.
Ms. Tait will have up to five minutes for opening remarks, after which we will proceed with rounds of questions.
Ms. Tait, I think you know how this works. Somebody's going to ask you a question, and depending on what round we are in, we're going to tell you how much time everyone has for questions and answers. Thank you.
I invite you, Ms. Tait, to begin your remarks.