Official Languages Committee on March 16th, 2010

[Francis Potié]

Do you want us to give you the list?

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

The number of newspapers rose from 13 to 17. What are the four new newspapers?

[Francis Potié]

There are three papers in Southwestern Ontario: Le Métropolitain, Le Régional and L'Action which is in London-Sarnia. There are two other new ones, L'Aurore boréale in the Yukon and L'Aquilon in the Northwest Territories. One is withdrawing because they have changed their method of distribution. They moved from subscriptions with door-to-door delivery and the newspapers... This does not meet the program criteria.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Mr. Chairman, I am wondering if it would not be in the interest of the committee to have someone come who could give us very specific information on the Canada Periodical Fund, as far as francophone and anglophone minority media are concerned, including both print and radio. This is what I would like to see, and I think it would be very useful for such people to appear.

As for radio and print, do you have any statistics on the amount of advertising you have been allocated over the last two or three fiscal years? I imagine that that is how you work, by fiscal year.

[François Côté]

Are you talking about government advertising?

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Yes, I am referring to the Government of Canada, including all departments and agencies.

[François Côté]

Last year, national radio advertising was $450,000. This year, it will be close to $485,000.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Is it distributed by radio station or do you purchase it and redistribute it yourselves?

[François Côté]

It is purchased by our national advertising company, which redistributes the money to radio stations according to certain financial criteria, and according to the market size of course.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you, Mr. Bélanger.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

We will now continue with Mr. Nadeau.

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I would just like to know if we, as legislators and federal members of Parliament, can help you out in certain areas? There are short-, medium- and long-term projects.

Are there some things that you would like to let us know about so that we could work alongside you to help get things going for particular projects or applications? It could concern requests or perhaps suggestions of solutions that would allow the radio and print sectors to become even stronger in their connections to the community and to be more leading-edge media in light of the competition and the realities you are facing.

[Simon Forgues]

We can say the following: we are often provided with tools, but in a sense, we are not allowed to use them. At one point in time, there was a program called Francommunauté virtuelle which was set up to help develop Internet sites.

However, it did not last. Once the websites were up and running, there was no way to contribute to them. A website cannot just function on a prayer. It needs content. It's as if I offered to give you a car tomorrow morning, but I did not give you any gas to make it run. It wouldn't move. This is the kind of thing that often happens to us.

[François Côté]

Currently, the APOL, which is there for community radio stations, pays 50% of the equipment start-up costs for the station. Afterwards, there is no more. We provide half of the tools, and following that, we tell people to fend for themselves. However, things are not so simple. That is why we need ongoing funding that will finally give us the help we need to function day to day. Currently, we are unable to do so.

[Francis Potié]

Generally speaking, the Canada Periodical Fund sets out exceptions that take into account the realities of the communities. This should underpin a lot of the actions taken by different departments. That is what part VII of the Official Languages Act encourages the government to do.

More specifically, our members are very concerned with the transition to new technologies. The francophone media has a very strong presence and performance on the Web. To add to what Simon was saying, there has already been a Web development program that had many shortcomings. It was only focused on development. Francommunauté was really concerned with major technology development projects but it had no ongoing support.

In reality, less spectacular but more sustained support is what the industry would like to have to evolve. According to our members and the APF, that is really what would help us deal with the challenges and market changes that we are now experiencing.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Mr. Nadeau, you have one minute left.

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

Can you tell us about the various partnerships you are currently working on to demonstrate that you are looking for solutions, through the media or other partners, to ensure that you will be better heard by governments and in a better position to answer to your clientele?

[Francis Potié]

I will talk about two cases.

Often, when we have to react to requests for consultations from governments, we talk to the people at the Alliance des radios communautaires du Canada. At the APF, we speak to our anglophone counterpart in Quebec. We ask these people how they see the issue. We usually agree. We have more or less the same concerns. If that is not the case, there are no hard feelings.

Currently—and this has been the case for several years—we are working with the Alliance des radios communautaires du Canada and the QCNA on a major project that involves doing surveys on reading rates and audiences in 80 markets in Canada, and working together to market official language community media. We are working together. We are rather proud of our level of cooperation, but we would like the government to be more receptive, particularly Industry Canada.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you, Mr. Nadeau.

Are you talking about cooperation or convergence, Mr. Potié?

[Francis Potié]

Both.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

We will now go to Ms. Glover.

[Shelly Glover, Conservative, Saint Boniface, MB]

I would like to say good morning and to welcome all of the witnesses.

I would like to take a moment to celebrate with you. In fact, it is really thanks to your organizations that my children and I were able to learn to speak French properly. I was born anglophone, but community radio stations in Manitoba helped me enormously. It really is thanks to you that we were able to live in French, discover artists, French theatre, etc. Continue your wonderful work.

As Mr. Nadeau said, this is something our government became involved in so that we could support it. I would really like to know how we can help you. This morning's discussion is of great assistance to me. I am really pleased to hear you talking about the APF, Mr. Potié. I recognize the January 25 press release from Ms. Sylviane Lanthier, president of the APF. She states the following:[...] the APF is confident that the measures provided under the CPF will adequately meet the needs of its members, of francophone community newspapers across the country [...]

This really is a favourable reference to the new program. I thank you for it. If you could pass along my appreciation to Ms. Lanthier, that would be nice.

Moreover, Sophie Gaulin, from La Liberté, spoke to me about the Canada Periodical Fund. She was also very impressed by the changes. In Manitoba, La Liberté is really the only newspaper published in French. It is therefore of the utmost importance that our minority communities have access to the news in French. Please carry on your work in that regard as well.

Mr. Forgues, you talked about audience ratings and I believe you said you had statistics on that subject. We did not however give you the opportunity to share them with us.

[Simon Forgues]

I do not recall having spoken of our audience rating.

[Shelly Glover, Conservative, Saint Boniface, MB]

Are you aware of them?