Official Languages Committee on May 14th, 2009

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

Mr. Galipeau, I just want you to know that there is no animosity. The correspondence speaks for itself. These are not trifling matters; we are not talking about a couple of kids fighting in the schoolyard, or anything like that. CTV is a serious broadcaster and it made a serious offer of $153 million, with serious partners. They won. So, they own the rights.

You made some comments about all the effort they have gone to and the agreements they have reached with cable operators, in order to be able to provide signals to Francophones all across Canada. They have told you they can reach a certain percentage of the population. At this point, it would not be beneficial for CTV to have Radio-Canada come into the mix. They have already told you that they are able to provide the signal to the vast majority of people. They have the same concerns that you do. I read the comments made by Mr. Frappier, Mr. Brace and Mr. Goldstein before this Committee. There is no animosity there. I would not like you to think that we are not on speaking terms or that we are at daggers drawn. That is not at all the case. We are talking about a business transaction where they came out the winners, fair and square. They are doing what they have to do to fulfill the terms of their contract.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Good.

[Sylvain Lafrance]

Mr. Galipeau, I would just like to add something. To build on what Hubert Lacroix just said, we have had very good discussions with them. Monday, they told members of the Senate Committee that they had resolved the problem—here I am responding to Ms. Guay, who was saying earlier that they keep on trying because they have not yet solved the problem. They have made a real effort and have really made progress.

They know full well that, the day the issue of the 12,000 Francophones outside Quebec is resolved, they will still have to address the situation of Anglophones in Quebec and people in the North. Even if CBC/Radio-Canada were providing Olympic coverage across the country, there would still be problems that could not be resolved and that would remain a concern, because of the very nature of television distribution in Canada. We will always be able to reach an ever larger proportion of the population, but we will never be able to cover 100% of the population perfectly. At the same time, I hope our results will always be the best they can be.

I can assure you that this has nothing to do with pride. It is about two corporations that each have to manage their affairs and fulfill their own mission and commitments. We are trying to talk and find solutions.

So, that is the situation at this point and the way things are now: in the last discussion I had with Mr. Frappier, he told me that he thought he had found an optimal solution, and that they were well on their way to implementing it. I believe he said they could reach 98 or 99% of the Canadian population.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you, and thank you, Mr. Galipeau.

Mr. Godin, would you be prepared to use your talents as a mediator to help out the Committee?

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

Asking questions here can be difficult at times. We exist in a political climate, and yet we are not supposed to be political. It is pretty tough.

In spite of that, I am hearing that you have social responsibilities, but we did not hear anything like that said about CTV. They were not told that their television service involves social responsibilities.

As for CBC/Radio-Canada, this country's public television broadcaster, we may disagree with it about certain things, but we love our public television. You are aware of my views on the subject, and you know how much I love Radio-Canada. If I am complaining, it is only because I love it and I want it to have an even stronger presence in my region and on the national news. I wanted to mention that in passing.

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

I hear you loud and clear.

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

Thank you.

The government says that you have social responsibilities. That means that it, too, has a role to play in terms of our public television broadcaster. It should invite all of us to sit down together to find some answers, because this public television broadcaster, which belongs to Canadians, to taxpayers, has social responsibilities. If there are costs to be incurred, they should not have to be borne by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, whose funding has been cut. The station in Windsor has lost six journalists, and is almost on the verge of closing. In Moncton, we have also lost six journalists and we will again be losing services.

In addition, even though you have social responsibilities, you are being asked to cooperate with CTV, a private broadcaster, and give it what revenues you still have, which would only dig you in deeper. One of these fine days, we will lose our public broadcaster. That worries me.

First of all, does the government have a role to play in this situation? Second, could you forward to the Committee that section of the contract which stipulates that there is a responsibility to provide coverage in both languages? Does that exist?

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

Mr. Godin, I do not know whether the contracts or tender call documents are public. We will find out. If they are public, we will be very pleased to make you aware of the conditions that were set out.

In terms of our social responsibility, it is very clear under the Broadcasting Act. Every day, we try to provide Canadians with appropriate programming, based on those objectives. It is clear that CTV does not have the same mandate that we do; we often say so. Indeed, it is that very difference that makes the national public broadcaster so important.

CTV won the broadcast rights through a commercial call for tenders, to which its consortium duly responded. It is the people at CTV who are behind the wheel and driving the car. We cannot force them to enter into an arrangement to fix something that they do not see as problematic.

That is where the situation now stands.

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

No; CBC/Radio-Canada does not have that power.

However, the Government of Canada has a duty to respect the fact that there are two official languages in this country when the Olympic Games are being held here, particularly since we do have two official languages in Canada, whereas other countries do not even have French as a language. Also, the Olympic Games began within the Francophonie. It is the federal government that should be acting as mediator, not Yvon Godin.

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

Mr. Godin, I will leave it up to the lawmakers and legal experts to decide who has what power to force which people to reach an agreement.

I simply want to say that we fully understand our responsibilities under the Broadcasting Act. That is why Sylvain was explaining earlier what we will be doing over that two-week period. We are trying to reach as many Francophones as possible with the programming we have prepared.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Lemieux, please.

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

I wanted to ask whether I could ask one factual question.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

We still have a minute and a half within Mr. Godin's time.

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

I'm sorry, I thought Monsieur Godin

had finished. Do you have any other questions?

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

If it is for the good of all Canadians, I will let you put your question, Mr. Lemieux.

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Thank you very much. It is a question of interest to the Committee.

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

I want to hear what you have to say, Mr. Lemieux.

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

You are very kind, Mr. Godin.

If CBC/Radio-Canada were to provide Olympic coverage, what would its budget be?

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

Sylvain can add to my answer in a few moments. I'd say it would depend on the specific circumstances of that coverage, the kind of programming we wanted to deliver, the number of hours--

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

But your plan, sir? You have a plan; you must have a—

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

No, we don't have a plan. We don't have the rights to the Olympic Games. We have programming that will be on the air during that time.

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

I understand that you don't have the rights, but I'm sure it's not a blank sheet for you right now. In other words, I'm sure you thought this through. When you negotiate with CTV, you have a number in your mind about what kind of effort you'd like to devote towards the Olympics and what the cost would be. I can't believe that it's a blank sheet and you have no idea.

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

Well, you'll see why.

[Sylvain Lafrance]

No, negotiations with CTV didn't go there. In fact, there was a start of a negotiation to see whether there was any possibility, and the answer was no. So we didn't go to the point at which we would say we'd do 40 or 50 hours, and we didn't cost it.

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

You must know what you would like to achieve.