Do you plan to invest more—
Evidence of meeting #9 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 local.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #9 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 local.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:05 p.m.
Bloc
Sébastien Lemire Bloc Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC
Do you plan to invest more in infrastructure in Montreal, for example, if only English‑language content is important to you in Quebec?
5:05 p.m.
President, Rogers Sports and Media, Rogers Communications Inc.
We plan to invest in journalism but likely not in infrastructure.
5:10 p.m.
President, Rogers Sports and Media, Rogers Communications Inc.
I believe I answered it.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
All right.
You have 18 seconds left, Mr. Lemire. What do you want to do with that?
5:10 p.m.
Bloc
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
5:10 p.m.
NDP
Richard Cannings NDP South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Right now, Shaw and Rogers together have an employment force of well over 30,000 people. I think it's 34,000. You mentioned a net increase of 43 reporter staff, I think.
We've heard concern in the media and at other committees that there will be a big hit on overall employment in the new Rogers. I'm wondering if you could comment on what is projected for that job loss, because I think overall it must be negative or this wouldn't be happening.
5:10 p.m.
Vice-President, Regulatory Cable, Rogers Communications Inc.
I think it's fair to say that in any transaction of this size and nature there will obviously be some redundancies, but the great news is that not only are we committed to the 10,000 employees who currently work at Shaw, but we have further committed to creating 3,000 net new jobs as part of this transaction as we move ahead with our extension of service into indigenous, rural and remote communities, and as we deploy our 5G networks and do a lot of our new build. We are going to be in a footprint that is much larger than the current Shaw footprint, which will require us to hire people. We've also made commitments, as you will see in the appendix we gave to you, to a new national centre of technology and engineering excellence, and that will in and of itself create hundreds of new jobs.
I think the great news for you is that what you may have heard in the press is not in fact going to be translated into reality.
5:10 p.m.
NDP
Richard Cannings NDP South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC
Thank you.
Madam Chair, that's all I have. I cede my time.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
That's great. We still have to hear from CRTC and Bell. Because of votes this was disrupted.
Before I entertain an order to adjourn, I would like to thank the witnesses for coming and for answering cogently and quickly the questions they were asked.
I would entertain a motion for this meeting to be adjourned.
