Official Languages Committee on May 12th, 2009

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Mr. Nadeau, please give the interpreters time to translate those expressions.

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

All right.

All these important communities within the broader Canadian francophone community and Canada must have their place within the programming of the Vancouver Olympic Games. If we haven't noted the importance of that, that means that VANOC has failed in the countdown. As we know, it forgot the francophone aspect of Canada in its launch.

I want to know whether, as the broadcaster of the games, you have a preferential place, which is rightly theirs, to promote Canada's French-speaking communities. I'm not asking more, but I demand that equality. What activities have you put in place for that?

[Rick Brace]

I'm going to ask Mr. Frappier to speak on this, because he is the chef de mission.

But just before we do, I want to make something clear. You talked about the launch event and how it was not something that was, in your view, acceptable in terms of the balance between French and English coverage. We've heard that from others. What we need to make clear is that VANOC is the organization you would have to speak to on that. We don't control the events. We only show the pictures. We can just broadcast them. We don't control, for example, the opening ceremonies. They hire an independent producer who actually delivers the products.

I'll pass it to Gerry.

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

That's fine, Mr. Frappier, because Mr. Brace just answered the question. It's not your responsibility, but rather that of VANOC. So we agree on that.

[Rick Brace]

In terms of the games and the delivery of the games, the show on the ground, whether it's ceremonies, press conferences, lead-up events, or anything like that, is controlled by VANOC. Our role and our responsibility is to broadcast that.

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

All right, thank you.

The Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne du Canada is the umbrella organization that represents all the minority francophone and acadian communities in Canada— the French Canadians and Acadians. It has asked that the signal be available not one month before the games, but rather six months before the games, precisely to permit the broadcast of the cultural and athletic activities that are now part of the Olympic whole. And so much the better!

From what I understand, the signal will be unscrambled just one month before the games. Why didn't you agree for it to be done six months before the games?

[Rick Brace]

There's a practical issue with unscrambling that long before the events, and there's a commercial issue, quite frankly. It's probably more of a commercial issue. The way it will work is that people who do not subscribe will get the signal for free, as we've described. People who do subscribe will continue to pay. So there's an issue in that someone who is paying may now have a next door neighbour who may be getting it for free for six months. That's one concern.

The other, practical side of it is that all our research and everything we've done really demonstrates that two weeks to three weeks before an event is the optimum time to promote an event. That's when people really sit up and take notice. So to stretch it out beyond that, combined with the commercial consideration I just described, really makes it impractical for us.

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

I understand the commercial aspect of the matter. I'm talking about the Olympic Games that Canada will be holding and broadcasting around the world.

At that point, shouldn't we be looking beyond that commercial aspect? It is indeed something supranational, and we should be participating and enabling those communities to make themselves better known by agreeing to unscramble the signal six months before the games.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Maybe give a short answer, if you would.

[Rick Brace]

Let me put it this way, as a short answer. It's something we can look at. I think six months is too long. We've agreed to a month. We can think about that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Nadeau.

We'll now continue with Mr. Godin.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I want to thank the witnesses from CTV for being here today.

What have you done about the broadcast of the Paralympic Games? Because those games will be held after the Olympic Games.

[Rick Brace]

We are at the final stages with one point, which has now been agreed to. We will be making an announcement that the contract is done. That happened yesterday, basically, so you're hearing it first. That's number one.

Number two, in terms of coverage--

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

—in both official languages.

[Rick Brace]

--what I'm very proud to say is that we're going to be delivering more hours of coverage in both official languages than has ever been done before, highlighted by the fact that the gold medal final, along with all of the sledge hockey, is going to be carried live. This is for the very first time. Understand, there are only six sports in the Paralympics. They're not games the size of the regular Olympics.

We are right now in a process where we kind of have 25 hours in the French language and 25 hours in the English language scheduled.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

But my question is, when it's covered, is it going to be covered in English and French in the same equality--

[Rick Brace]

Oh, absolutely, absolutely.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

--as the Olympics themselves?

[Rick Brace]

What we've done for the Olympics and the Paralympics is to have two teams. We have the English team and it's mirrored by the French team. So it's equal in terms of the production value, the quality, the number of cameras, and so on.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

How did you come up with a figure of 96%?

[Rick Brace]

The figures come from a combination of media stats, BBM and Nielsen measurements, and they look at the number of households outside the province of Quebec that are francophone. From that, we deduct the number of homes that have cable or have satellite available to them to which they actually subscribe. Then what remains is the number of homes that are only served by over-the-air.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

All right, these are households. So when we say 7,000 or 12,000, we're talking about persons or households?

[Gerry Frappier]

These are households.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

Have there been any talks on the subject, for example, of an agreement between RDS, RIS, TQS, CTV and the satellite companies to provide satellite boxes to people who don't have them for a period of two or three months?

[Rick Brace]

No, we really haven't gone that far. I know that's something that would be difficult for them. They simply don't have decoders they could offer for free. I think you heard about the Freesat proposal this morning from the CRTC, and they talked about the $500 initial cost it would take. So that would be something that I think would be impractical.