Official Languages Committee on Jan. 31st, 2013

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Welcome to the 66^th meeting of the Standing Committee on Official Languages. Today is Thursday, January 31, 2013.

Pursuant to Standing Order 108, we are here to study linguistic duality during the 150^th anniversary celebrations of Canadian Confederation in 2017. Appearing before us for one hour is Mr. Hubert Lacroix, the President and Chief Executive Officer of CBC/Radio-Canada.

Welcome.

Before we start, I recognize Mr. Godin.

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

Mr. Chair, I would like to emphasize that, at his appearance last December, the minister responsible for official languages said that it was up to each department to make sure that the Official Languages Act is enforced and that it was not his job to make his cabinet colleagues comply with the Official Languages Act.

That is why we have introduced a motion. I would like to read it.That the Committee invite each of the ministers responsible for the institutions covered by the Roadmap for Canada’s Linguistic Duality 2008–2013: Acting for the Future, and each of the ministers responsible for National Defence and the Canadian Forces, Veterans Affairs Canada, Environment Canada, and Fisheries and Oceans Canada, to attend a two-hour televised public hearing, respectively, to discuss their official languages obligations by April 30, 2013.

The motion has been submitted to the clerk's office. We can debate it next week.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you for your notice of motion, Mr. Godin. We can discuss it next week.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Mr. Lacroix, the floor is yours.

[Hubert T. Lacroix, President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation]

Mr. Chair, members of the committee, good afternoon. It is a pleasure to be here this afternoon and to participate in your study on the 150^th anniversary of Confederation and linguistic duality.

I know that the committee postponed this meeting last fall when we were in the midst of our CRTC license renewal hearings. I appreciate your understanding.

CBC/Radio-Canada is already planning a number of activities we hope will help Canadian celebrates 2017 in English and French.

I would like to start by sharing with you a little bit about some of the ideas we are looking at in terms of programming. Then I'd like to talk about what we believe is our role as a public broadcaster and how we hope to use the 150^th anniversary to facilitate discussions among Canadians about their country, this important anniversary and what it means.

CBC/Radio-Canada has a mandate to connect Canadians to their country, their community, and each other in English, French, and eight aboriginal languages. We do this every day on our airwaves and increasingly on our digital platforms.

Sometimes we actually combine the talents of our English and French services to present what we call “signature events”, which are events that we believe have important national appeal. For example, a year ago CBC/Radio-Canada presented 8th Fire, 8e feu. You might actually remember this because we sent each of you a sample DVD of that series. It explored Canada's 500-year-old relationship with its aboriginal communities, with content on television and radio and an interactive bilingual website featuring 20 aboriginal filmmakers from across the country.

We're also proud that our efforts to support linguistic duality have been recognized by the Commissioner of Official Languages. In the past year he granted the Award of Excellence for the Promotion of Linguistic Duality to Bernard St-Laurent, a CBC/Radio-Canada journalist and host of the popular C’est la vie, which showcases francophone culture from across the country for English listeners on CBC Radio.

For CBC/Radio-Canada, the 150th anniversary will be the culmination of several years of important Canadian anniversaries. We intend to play a significant role in sharing these events with Canadians and in building the momentum toward 2017.

Our road to Confederation includes the anniversaries of the Charlottetown and Quebec conferences as well as the 200th anniversary of the birth of John A. Macdonald. The year 2014 marks 100 years of Nellie McClung and the women's rights movement in Canada. In 2016, if they stay on the ice, we'll celebrate the centenary of the National Hockey League. Between now and 2017 there are many important anniversaries, like the 100th anniversary of the battles of Vimy Ridge and Passchendaele, the 75th anniversary of the World War II battle for Dieppe, and the 70th anniversary of D-Day and Ortona.

In 2017, we will also celebrate the 375^th anniversary of the founding of Montreal and the 50^th anniversary of Expo 67.

As Mr. Godin has rightly pointed out to this committee, 2014 marks the 260^th anniversary of the deportation of the Acadians.

I would also like to point out our ongoing preparations to bring Canadians the Olympics in Sochi in 2014 and Rio de Janeiro in 2016, and the Pan Am and ParaPan Am Games in Toronto in 2015. We are delighted to be bringing Canadians the Olympics in English and French and, while they are not technically part of the 150^th celebrations, our experience has been that these international sporting events are a fantastic way to bring Canadians together.

Over the coming months, we will be making decisions about how our program schedules will mark these important anniversaries leading up to 2017.

A few of you may remember that, in 1967, CBC/Radio-Canada used its presence across the country to engage Canadians in celebrating the centennial of Confederation. We want to do the same thing for the 150^th. Last August, we announced “Canada 150/2017 starts now”, a plan for a series of conferences across the country to help generate excitement about the 150^th. We want to ensure that there is a public space where communities can gather to share their stories about Canada, and begin planning activities to celebrate this important milestone. It will also help CBC/Radio-Canada gather ideas and content to share on all of our platforms.

The conferences will be supported through an interactive website where Canadians can join in the conversation regardless of where they live. It will be launched soon, and we'll be asking Canadians to contribute their own content on this site in the months ahead. “Canada 150/2017 Starts Now” is a partnership between CBC/Radio-Canada, VIA Rail, and Community Foundations of Canada. Earlier this week we announced dates and locations for our conferences in every region of the country. The final national conference will be held in Ottawa on June 27, just before Canada Day, which is for us, of course, an important broadcasting day.

These conferences and related activities are also being produced in collaboration with Canadian organizations already at work on planning 2017 celebrations, including YMCA Canada, National Association of Friendship Centres, imagiNation 150, and Charlottetown 2014.

Strategic partnerships with corporations, communities, and government organizations will help all of us leverage our resources in support of 2017. I am aware that members of this committee have expressed concerns about CBC/Radio-Canada's ability to manage its budget cuts and still provide programming appropriate to highlight the upcoming anniversaries. There is no question that it is a challenge. There is no limit to the programming ideas we would like to pursue, but like all organizations, we need to manage what we have in a time of shrinking resources.

Let me give you an idea of the challenge. Last year, the CRTC's Local Program Improvement Fund, the LPIF that we are all so familiar with, allowed us to be present at the Canadian Francophone Games in Sudbury, National Acadian Day in Tracadie-Sheila, the 2012 Année des Fransaskois in Saskatchewan and the 150^th anniversary of the village of St. Albert in Alberta. The phasing out of the LPIF makes finding the resources for these kinds of events a challenge. It is likely that we will no longer be able to cover these kinds of events in the manner that we have in the past.

How much we can do will ultimately depend on the partnerships we can establish, but CBC/Radio-Canada intends to continue to play a leadership role in bringing Canadians together to share in these important national events. We are very excited about the lead up to the 150^th and we look forward to offering exciting Canadian programming to our audiences.

Mr. Chair, committee members, I would now be pleased to take your questions.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you, Mr. Lacroix.

We have 50 minutes for questions and comments.

You have the floor, Mr. Godin.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

First, I would like to extend a welcome to Mr. Lacroix. In most of our meetings, we have had differing opinions about Radio-Canada and about our country.

First, and this may come as a surprise to you, I would like to thank Radio-Canada for finally having appointed a national news reporter for the Atlantic region. We do not thank you often. But will that Atlantic reporter be part of the national news? That is another matter. A reporter is in place. But it remains to be seen whether we are going to hear about the Atlantic region on the national news with Céline Galipeau. We will be watching that closely, Mr. Lacroix.

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

I am certain you will, Mr. Godin.

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

We will talk later about the CRTC, about Radio-Canada's role and about budgets and so on. Right now, let's talk about the 150^th anniversary.

In your brief, you mentioned that you were going to recognize the deportation of the Acadians in the celebrations. I am pleased about that, because we cannot forget that event that took place in our country; we want people to know what went on.

I have another concern. Actually, my complaints are my usual ones. You said that Radio-Canada exists for all Canadians everywhere in Canada. But the impression is that Radio-Canada is really Radio-Montreal. The government imposed budget cuts. In your brief, you said that it would be a challenge. You mentioned the elimination of the CRTC's Local Program Improvement Fund. It was that fund that brought us Belle-Baie, Luc et Luc, La revue acadienne, and so on.

As we approach the 150^th anniversary, we wonder if we are heading back to Radio-Montreal again. I used to say Radio-Quebec, but people from Quebec City and the Gaspé corrected me. They told me that it was not Radio-Quebec City, or Radio-Chicoutimi or Radio-Sherbrooke. It really was Radio-Montreal. That is a concern.

We love Radio-Canada. It is our public broadcaster; it is close to our hearts. It is the people's broadcaster, but we want it to talk about the people. I do not mean that it has to talk about Yvon Godin; it has to talk about a whole lot of people. When we celebrate this event, will we see the parties in communities all over the country? Will all of our country be recognized? Will we see the same thing on the English side?

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

I always really enjoy listening to you, Mr. Godin. In your heart of hearts, you really are a huge fan of CBC/Radio-Canada and of the corporation's role.

Several committee members and I have had the opportunity to talk about our strategic plan for 2015. The second pillar of the strategic plan is that, as a national public broadcaster, we have to have our roots in the regions. The conferences we have just announced also show how we are reflecting the regions: Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, and so on. The list includes people from the north and from the Maritimes. The object of the conferences is to create public spaces where people will be able to talk to each other. We are also going to ask them what they are going to do for the 150^th anniversary. We will have links established with our partners in those communities. We will be asking them for their ideas about how they can arrange to get other people with a similar story in other parts of Canada working with them. The goal of those conferences is to do exactly what you are hoping we will do, to create stories that will bring together Canadians from coast to coast to coast.

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

Thank you.

[Tyrone Benskin, NDP, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

Hi, fellows. It's great to see you.

My question is along the same lines. How have the cuts that the CBC has endured affected the rollout of 2015 in terms of the regions?

Second, with regard to minority language communities, the anglophone community in Quebec

and the francophone communities outside Quebec, how will CBC/Radio-Canada get people involved, not only in the regions, but also in official language minority communities?

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

There are two aspects to your question. If I may, I will first mention how our strategy for 2015 has been influenced by the recent events that have changed our budgets.

The plan has not changed. Our objective is still to deliver Canadian programming in prime time, to be a public broadcaster with roots in the regions and to be a leader in technology, especially on new platforms. Our strategy has been affected in the sense that some of those initiatives have slowed down, but not in the sense that we have changed course.

What we call our local service expansion plan contained plans to get involved in some communities in the west. That has slowed down. In our consistent goal to provide our services to a greater number of Canadians, we are going to use new technological platforms if we are not able to proceed in the way we imagined at the outset. So we are slowing down in the terms of our roll-out and in the number of cities we can go to, but there will be no compromise in our consistent goal to see the public broadcaster well and truly rooted in the regions.

As for future plans, whether for programming or for the conferences and the ideas that we get from them, our objective is for the organizing committee in each community to make it possible on those occasions for everyone who has a significant opinion and for every local organization to have the opportunity to express their ideas. Put together with ideas from other areas, those ideas will give rise to ideas that we at CBC/Radio-Canada can use in our content ourselves.

Do not forget that our objective is to let people express their ideas, to tell us what they want to do. This is not a consultation. It is a matter of knowing what they are doing and how their ideas can then be linked to the ideas that other Canadians are having.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you, Mr. Lacroix.

Mr. Gourde, you have the floor.

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC]

Thank you kindly, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Lacroix, thank you for joining us today. I am excited to hear you talk about this platform that will be available to Canadians. Shining the spotlight on their stories, region by region, through a variety of projects, will help many Canadians learn more about our country and discover new places, bits of history and wonderful people. So I think you're on the right track in that respect.

At the beginning of your presentation, you said you wanted to celebrate both in English and in French, and I quite appreciate that. I was wondering, however, whether it might be possible to undertake projects involving both languages, programs for youth or a series of some sort, for example. Both English and French could be spoken, making the program equally suitable for CBC and Radio-Canada. A project like that could give more Canadians exposure to both official languages. It is rare indeed for someone who speaks English in their community to watch an entire program in French. The opposite is also true. But a program that is equally appealing to both anglophones and francophones would make both languages accessible to a broader range of Canadians.

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

That was how the series I mentioned earlier, 8th Fire, worked. We had an English version and a French version, so we were able to broadcast the same program to all Canadians in both languages.

We used the same formula in a wonderful documentary called 1 Day or 1 jour. The day was April 30, 2012, I believe. The documentary captured 24 hours in the lives of Canadians across the country, from Newfoundland and Labrador, and the Maritimes all the way to Vancouver. The end of the documentary featured two police officers—a francophone woman and an anglophone man, interestingly enough—who work together. They represented the culmination of all the work being done. The program spotlighted Canadian stories in both languages. We support that format very much, and it is certainly an idea we will look at.

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC]

Was that kind of series very popular?

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

Absolutely.

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC]

I think the experience could be repeated.

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

Yes.

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC]

Canadians, especially the younger generation, have an appetite for that. The statistics show that younger people are more likely to know both languages. Initiatives like this encourage them. I think it's great.

You mentioned an opportunity for people to join or engage in a conversation with you, at CBC, on various initiatives. Will that process get under way this year?

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

Yes. The conferences will start in April, with the first slated to take place in Vancouver. We will cover 12 cities in all, with the last stop in Ottawa on June 27, 2013, just before Canada Day.

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC]

Will the conferences serve as a first step, where Canadians will be asked to share their ideas, or will people have to show up with projects already in hand?

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

Our goal is to act as a catalyst, to encourage ideas. We will be asking people how they plan to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Confederation in their communities. By bringing people together, we hope they will submit ideas. And through this process, we hope to connect them with other like-minded individuals in their community and thus kick-start some of those projects.

I am certain that Canadians in other cities will share some of the ideas presented. So our goal is to connect them with one another. That is the purpose of the Web site. As I said, we want to be the catalyst in terms of bringing Canadians together so they can follow through on their ideas for celebrating the 150th anniversary.