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.
Bloc
Martin Champoux Bloc Drummond, QC
Correct me if I'm wrong, but Radio-Canada's mandate is to tell our stories. I imagine that cutting funding would also have a terrible impact on variety shows, which in Quebec are particularly high quality productions. They are admired.
Chief Executive Officer, TV5 Québec Canada, As an Individual
I am involved in exporting our content at TV5MONDE, and I can tell you that Canadian content, particularly francophone fiction, is extremely successful on the platform. We account for almost 30% of what's available on the global platform. Over all the territories and all the national languages, we get about 25% of views. The content is in French, subtitled in various languages.
Chief Executive Officer, TV5 Québec Canada, As an Individual
Our content is successful internationally. It just goes to show how amazing our artisans are.
Bloc
Martin Champoux Bloc Drummond, QC
From what you say, I imagine that over the course of your mandate, your objective will be to further increase visibility. You will take advantage of all the available platforms and use your experience to continue to help our stories and productions get wider attention.
Chief Executive Officer, TV5 Québec Canada, As an Individual
We also have to make them accessible to the public here, since discoverability is a major challenge we have to tackle.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Thank you, Martin.
Now we go to Ms. Ashton for two and a half minutes, please.
NDP
Niki Ashton NDP Churchill—Keewatinook Aski, MB
Thank you.
On Monday, Ms. Tait promised no job cuts between now and the end of the fiscal year. Employees of our national broadcaster should know where their next paycheque is coming from, but the question remains, what about the next couple of years? What size do you foresee CBC/Radio-Canada being, in terms of a workforce, in the coming years?
Chief Executive Officer, TV5 Québec Canada, As an Individual
I have no idea how to answer your question, honestly. I don't even know what the budgets look like, so it's premature for me to even guess at workforce size. I don't know how to answer. I'm not in the job.
Chief Executive Officer, TV5 Québec Canada, As an Individual
I understand your concern, and I share the concern.
I just want you to know that I am quite aware of how hard it is to balance a budget and how heart-wrenching it is to actually announce to people that they won't have a job. I have done that—have had to do that—and I don't look forward to having to do that again. If I could avoid that altogether for the rest of my life, I would be the first to sign in.
NDP
Niki Ashton NDP Churchill—Keewatinook Aski, MB
Okay. I appreciate that feedback.
With regard to the question around media deserts, I've spoken on numerous occasions about how the CBC here has failed our region and has shuttered our studio, which has had extremely intermittent short-term contracts. It has actively contributed to creating a media desert in this part of the country.
We know that there are many media deserts as private broadcasters shutter stations, cut back jobs, etc. We are not here to rely on Winnipeg or Toronto to tell our stories. They should be told by people here in regions like ours, and that is part of the CBC's mandate.
How do you envision CBC/Radio-Canada's role in investing in local and regional broadcasting and in acting on putting an end to media deserts that exist across our country?
Chief Executive Officer, TV5 Québec Canada, As an Individual
I couldn't agree with you more that part of the essential job of the public broadcaster is to be close to people's concerns. That's how you build trust: by being in their community and reporting on issues that they need to know about. Then you build from there to have national news and to have international news that they trust.
It's really been a hardship that, as a country, we haven't been able to support more local journalism, not only at the CBC but in private outlets as well. That's a very big concern, and that would be a very big focus for me.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Do you have any more questions, Ms. Ashton? No.
We'll go to Mr. Jivani for the Conservatives for five minutes.
Conservative
Jamil Jivani Conservative Durham, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Madam Bouchard.
The issue of bonuses has come up a few times already. Certainly, because I think the issue has plagued your predecessor, it's generated a lot of conversation in the media. People from the political left and the political right have condemned it. Even former big-name CBC personalities like Peter Mansbridge have commented on the issue.
I'd like to give you an opportunity to concisely clarify your position. Will you commit now to banning the sorts of egregious bonuses to executives that have been in the news? Is that a position you're able to articulate today?
Chief Executive Officer, TV5 Québec Canada, As an Individual
I have respect for the board of directors, which has asked for a report, and I will take this report into consideration. I will consult with the board of directors, and then we will decide what we do.
However, I can't commit to one way or another at this stage. I don't have enough information on the way forward, because it's one thing to say that you're going to ban something, but how do you go forward? What do you do with the employees who have their contracts? What do you do in terms of fair compensation? I need a plan in order to commit to something.
Conservative
Jamil Jivani Conservative Durham, ON
If I may suggest, I think that a lot of the reason the bonuses have become such a hot topic of discussion is because of feelings that there is a lack of CBC accountability to the taxpayer.
You said earlier that you want to be close to people's concerns and understand our country and the people of our country. I certainly would hope that it's not breaking news to you to suggest that a lot of people in our country are concerned about affordability, about things like paying a mortgage, paying rent and putting food on the table. When they see an organization that they are funding—a taxpayer-subsidized, billion-dollar organization—dishing out large bonuses at a time when viewership is in decline and overall ad revenue is in decline, it certainly feels to many Canadians that the CBC is tone-deaf and not accountable for what is happening within the organization and is tone-deaf to the broader context of what's happening in our country.
That is why I think it would be fair to assume that you might have an opinion on giving out large bonuses, even prior to all the things that you just mentioned. With your coming into your role, it would be fair for us to pose this question to you: Do you think those bonuses are fair, and would you, as the next CEO of the organization, commit to banning such practices?
Chief Executive Officer, TV5 Québec Canada, As an Individual
Certainly, going back into your question, I'm not tone deaf, I think. I certainly heard all of your questions loud and clear.
This is part of what I will take in at the beginning of my mandate, but I need a plan. I can't devise that plan or...it would be irresponsible for me to commit to alter this system one way or another without having a plan on how to do it. I need the information and I need to work with the people inside to get them on board for something that all of us will be comfortable with.
Conservative
Jamil Jivani Conservative Durham, ON
As you're aware, your predecessor, Ms. Tait, has been before this committee five times, I believe, in this calendar year. One of the things that I've heard from Canadians in terms of their concerns about what Ms. Tait has said is a lack of any sense of where the bonuses become absurd.
When you look at some of the numbers that I have in front of me, overall ad revenue, including TV and digital, is down 6.4% from 2023 to 2024. Audience share is dropping from 7.6% when Ms. Tait started in the role to 2.1% in prime time now. You have a Reuters study that showed that from 2018 to 2022, trust in the CBC dropped 17%.
You look at these numbers and you see that this is an organization with some real challenges. It had a real problem connecting with the people of our country. At that same time, the same Canadians who are seeing that information are seeing large bonuses given out to executives.
Can you empathize with why that seems absurd to the average taxpayer?
Chief Executive Officer, TV5 Québec Canada, As an Individual
Certainly I can't comment on the numbers that you are providing, because I know that they are partial. They are partial in that they refer to a segment of the activity of CBC/Radio‑Canada—
Chief Executive Officer, TV5 Québec Canada, As an Individual
There's radio. There's digital. There are all sorts of services that you can measure that you haven't talked about. They—
Conservative