Official Languages Committee on Jan. 31st, 2013

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

And those projects will no doubt receive radio or TV coverage throughout 2017.

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

That is one possibility, but these could also be entirely local events at the community level. For instance, a community association might organize an event and take advantage of the local paper. We hope to collect stories like these for our coverage of the country's 150th anniversary. In fact, our aim is to bring together Canadians' ideas like a collection of puzzle pieces, so to speak.

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

The anniversary year of 2017 starts in January and ends in December. July 1st will, of course, mark a momentous point in the year, but besides those festivities, have you allocated much programming time to the celebration?

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

We have not yet finalized our programming for 2017. The budgets are settled. Our goal is to be as present as we have always been during occasions of this nature and, leading up to 2017, to continue with the signature events approach I mentioned in my presentation.

In 1967, we had 6,000 hours of programming. I don't know what the number will be in 2017. We will see.

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

Surely, local stations in every province will play a significant role.

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

Absolutely.

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

Besides Montreal, you have Quebec City, Saguenay—

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

I can assure you that our entire corporation will take into account the importance of the events leading up to 2017. We consider it part of our mandate, so as part of the anniversary celebrations, we will strive to honour Canadians' stories in a fitting manner.

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

Have you sensed any excitement among Canadian businesses in terms of their involvement in your programming?

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

Oh yes! I referred to VIA Rail and the Community Foundations of Canada, but there are many others. The news release we put out on Monday indicated that we already had the support of some 15 organizations for our conference series.

On the programming side, we are currently looking for partners we can work with to raise enough money—because we can no longer do it all alone—to create programs featuring the signature events leading up to 2017. We have almost reached an agreement with one company, and we hope to find three others so we can meet our budget needs.

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

Thank you very much, Mr. Lacroix.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you.

Mr. Dion, the floor is yours.

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you for being here, Mr. Lacroix.

Basically, you are going to conduct consultations and gather suggestions from Canadians to help you figure out what your programming to mark the 150th anniversary will look like.

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

We're talking about a whole. There are a number of milestones between now and 2017, in other words, major anniversaries that we will be covering because we consider them part of Canada's history. It is with those milestones and our programming content in mind that we are looking for partners. The idea is to be able to produce high-quality content.

At the same time, the process we launched this week with the help of our partners, the conference series, is designed to give Canadians a public space where they can connect and talk with one another. The purpose is to complement our programming. Our programming will also focus on what Canadians are doing or hoping to do to celebrate the country's 150th anniversary.

The signature events programming and the conference series are two parallel, but complementary, initiatives.

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC]

In the rising crescendo between now and 2017, what role will official language communities play?

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

An essential one, a role that is reflected in the conferences being held in various cities across the country, in the groups that will emerge, and in the partners that will be brought together. All of that speaks to the importance we place on those communities. As you may know, half of Radio-Canada's stations are in minority communities, so they play a pivotal role. In fact, Canada's largest regional station is a CBC station in a francophone community in Quebec.

As for the crescendo building up to 2017, I can tell you that we are calling on everyone in those communities to contribute, Mr. Dion.

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC]

This whole exercise may be a bit premature, since the government has yet to say how it intends to celebrate 2017.

But since we're here, let's give you a blank sheet and you can tell us what you'd like our report to say about CBC/Radio-Canada.

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

With respect to the 150th anniversary?

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC]

With respect to the 150th anniversary as it relates to official language communities, respect for both official languages and the promotion of those languages.

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

CBC/Radio-Canada has a very clear understanding of its role as the public broadcaster. The corporation is applying that understanding to its mandate of connecting Canadians by sharing stories and providing a historical portrait of where the country has been and how it came to be what it is today. With that in mind, the corporation has arranged a series of conferences, in collaboration with major partners such as VIA Rail and the Community Foundations of Canada, as well as many other contributors across the country. All of those players understand the importance of firing Canadians with enthusiasm for the upcoming 150th anniversary of Confederation.

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC]

You told us that your programming and your strategies to communicate with Canadians will indeed reflect different celebrations. Do you have some sort of process or mechanism that enables you to learn from past performance? I mean a record of your performance in terms of marking the War of 1812 and the coverage delivered.

Can we expect that, over time, CBC/Radio-Canada will get better and better at using its resources to mark these events? Come 2017, will it do a better job than it does today?

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

I like to think so. I hope we are learning. Whenever a program of ours is introduced, we always do some research. We look not only at how the program was produced and funded, but also at what impact it has and whether it appeals to Canadians.

Now, Mr. Dion, the great thing is that Twitter allows us to make all kinds of determinations in relation to performance indicators. For instance, we can see how much traffic we have on our digital platforms and whether the programming we delivered was of interest to Canadians. We are constantly looking at that.

As you saw, a lot of major milestones will take place between now and 2017. We are going to have some decisions to make. We will have to decide which events to cover, how to cover them, what types of programs to offer and what the content should look like, always staying within our means, of course.

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC]

Thank you.

I'm not a big TV buff, in that when I do watch, it's usually Radio-Canada. I saw a little bit of your coverage of the War of 1812, and what I saw was more or less annoyed reporters wondering what the point was of marking such an occasion. One historian said he couldn't really understand why we bothered marking the event. You may have had more in-depth coverage, but that is what I saw.

Could you give us a quick overview of Radio-Canada's War of 1812 coverage?

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

Mr. Dion, there is no way I can comment on that because I am not the person in charge of programs, nor am I the one who monitors programming changes in detail. But I've made a note of your comment and I am going to make sure that we do—

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC]

I am bringing it up because I don't want the same thing to happen in 2017. The attitude came across as sulky.

I personally believe the War of 1812 was a historic event. The government did not necessarily do a good job of conveying that message, but it was a historic event. I would have liked to see more in-depth discussions. Perhaps there were some. In the few current affairs programs I saw, the mood was terrible. The people were wondering why the subject was on the table.

I certainly don't want that to be the case in 2017. I hope the coverage will be neutral, of course, but also show some enthusiasm.