Evidence of meeting #142 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 cbcradio-canada.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Kevin Waugh Conservative Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK
Is that something that you would continue to have a voice on when you get to the new job on January 3 at CBC?
Is that something you would talk about—taking it from a non-profit, TV5, to CBC—when you do come?
Chief Executive Officer, TV5 Québec Canada, As an Individual
I'm not sure I follow your question. I'm sorry. I really am trying.
What does TV5 have to do with the question?
Conservative
Kevin Waugh Conservative Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK
I think people look at the bonuses. You've heard it around the table here. It's been a hot issue. You knew that coming here. You sat and visualized the new mandate of the CBC. You were there for weeks talking about it. You must have heard the public talk about the bonus structure. That's what has upset most Canadians in this country about it.
What are your thoughts on that?
Chief Executive Officer, TV5 Québec Canada, As an Individual
The discussions we had at the expert committee were really on mandate and governance, not about internal policies regarding compensation.
Conservative
Kevin Waugh Conservative Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK
How are you going to turn the trust around?
You talked a little bit about trust.
Conservative
Kevin Waugh Conservative Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK
How are you going to turn the trust in the public broadcaster around?
You have seen it erode in this country. How are you going to turn the trust in the CBC around with the general public?
Chief Executive Officer, TV5 Québec Canada, As an Individual
I can tell you, because I talk with my colleagues in Europe, that all public broadcasters see the trust issue as something central to our mission and mandate.
There are different currents of opinion, currently, worldwide, on the issue of public broadcasting. It's not something that's specific to the CBC or to Canada. It's a challenge for all of us public broadcasters to maintain that trust and to earn it, honestly. It's about earning it. You never take it for granted.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Thank you very much.
I'll go to the Liberals.
Mr. Anthony Housefather, you have five minutes, please.
Liberal
Anthony Housefather Liberal Mount Royal, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Mrs. Bouchard, for being here with us today. We are pleased to welcome you here to the committee.
I feel I need to emphasize the importance of CBC/Radio-Canada's work in Canada's linguistic minority communities. Some people say all anglophone services could be reduced and Radio-Canada's quality francophone services outside Quebec could be maintained.
From what I understand, the two services are often combined. For example, the CBC and Radio-Canada could use the same camera operators, journalists, trucks or cameras elsewhere in Canada.
Could you explain that?
Chief Executive Officer, TV5 Québec Canada, As an Individual
Obviously, I don't know how things have been organized for the last nine years, but I do know how it worked before, and I have no reason to believe that it has fundamentally changed to completely separate the divisions.
English and French services are housed in the same building and have a lot of resources in common. The fact that footage and news sources are shared means that each news desk can create its own news segments, whether online or on air, on radio or TV. You can see that on air, and it would be shocking if that wasn't the case.
It's clearly very interconnected, and all support services outside Quebec are actually provided by English services. Without that support, there is no service. The services are highly integrated.
November 27th, 2024 / 6:10 p.m.
Liberal
Anthony Housefather Liberal Mount Royal, QC
That's my understanding.
When I am outside Quebec doing an interview, I notice that the same resources are used by the anglophone network. The vast majority of people who watch the CBC outside Quebec are anglophones, particularly in some provinces.
You certainly wouldn't have the same lease and you certainly wouldn't have the same services available to francophones if an anglophone service wasn't offered as well.
I'm going to switch to English now.
For the minority language community—the English-speaking community in Quebec—if you were to cut the English CBC, wouldn't there be a huge gap for English-speaking Quebeckers if the CBC didn't exist? I have been throughout the province of Quebec, and in many parts of Quebec, outside of Montreal, the CBC is the only local news available to the English-speaking community, whether it's on radio or on television.
Chief Executive Officer, TV5 Québec Canada, As an Individual
I would like to not think about the CBC not existing. Obviously, CBC News in Quebec and in Montreal has a long history of doing investigations, doing local reporting in Quebec City and doing all the reporting on the political side.
Again, I don't know what happened in the last nine years in detail, but I know how essential it is to the English-speaking community.
Liberal
Anthony Housefather Liberal Mount Royal, QC
For example, if I visit New Carlisle in the Gaspé, or if I go up to the coast of Labrador on the north shore, or even if I'm in Quebec City or in Trois-Rivières, the CBC is my only conduit to English-speaking local news. There are no daily English papers, and there's no other radio station or television station that is local and that is dealing with my news in my municipality.
To me, the CBC is an essential service, nationally. You're coming into an incredibly important job. If you could give me your number one priority, what would that be?
Chief Executive Officer, TV5 Québec Canada, As an Individual
The number one priority is to get close to Canadians, to understand where their hearts are, where the beat is, and to make sure that we serve responsibly to the mandate that we are given. I know it's a big task, but that's the essence of it. It takes many different steps and strategies, but that's the essence of it. That's what we need to do.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
That's 30 seconds. That's it. Thank you. You were right on the button, Anthony.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
I now go to Martin Champoux.
Martin, you have two and a half minutes, please.
Bloc
Martin Champoux Bloc Drummond, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Mrs. Bouchard, in your discussion with Ms. Gainey earlier, you addressed the issue of CBC/Radio-Canada's responsibility for protecting and developing regional news services. It wasn't just about the services of the public broadcaster. It was also about local news businesses.
I find the idea that was raised very interesting. We haven't talked about it very much, but I think it's excellent. The idea would be to share resources and infrastructure with small regional news businesses, which have few resources, particularly community radio and television stations, or even weeklies, which can't afford to make the digital transition.
Do you think that CBC/Radio-Canada could, in fact, share resources and infrastructure to enable these small essential news media to cover regional news?
Do you think that could be part of the role you play as a public broadcaster?
Chief Executive Officer, TV5 Québec Canada, As an Individual
The challenge I see is that we have to take a holistic approach. We have to think about the interest of the community as a whole and ensure a diversity of voices.
Then, we have to ask ourselves what solution will meet the needs of each type of media organization that is struggling right now.
There is no one-size-fits-all solution.
Can digital infrastructure be shared? Can other types of resources be shared? Do these media need visibility?
You know, the problem is often that the media want their independence. They want their voice, but they lack access to audiences to be able to showcase their products and generate revenue.
Perhaps CBC/Radio-Canada can play a role in supporting business models.
Bloc
Martin Champoux Bloc Drummond, QC
What Mr. Housefather said a few minutes ago about the CBC in Quebec serving anglophone Quebeckers is also true for francophones outside Quebec. The media that serve these populations, which are not the public broadcaster, are even more vulnerable right now than the media in majority official language markets.
The public broadcaster could very naturally become an essential support for these small media. That would help fulfill CBC/Radio-Canada's role in covering regional news.
Bloc
Martin Champoux Bloc Drummond, QC
I'm going to ask you one last quick question.
Would you be in favour of phasing out advertising, at least in news and public affairs programming, and increasing public funding for CBC/Radio-Canada?
Do you think that's the solution we should move towards?
Chief Executive Officer, TV5 Québec Canada, As an Individual
With regard to advertising, keep in mind that the Quebec market is small and vulnerable and that original advertising content depends on the media to broadcast and distribute it.
If we remove Radio-Canada from the equation of the francophone Quebec advertising market, aren't we going to end up in the situation we were in decades ago, when the advertising we were exposed to had to be translated and adapted and did not at all reflect the culture?
That kind of ad offends people, because—