Evidence of meeting #69 for Official Languages in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was crtc.
A video is available from Parliament.
4:40 p.m.
Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
I will try to obtain those figures. I am not sure if we have that kind of a breakdown. I can tell you, since I often have to speak to all employees....
4:40 p.m.
Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
I understand.
4:45 p.m.
Conservative
4:45 p.m.
Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
Yes, absolutely.
I often have to speak to all employees at the same time. Obviously, I go back and forth between the two languages. Although people do not necessarily want to speak French, I am always surprised to see how well people can understand the other language—even anglophones whose first language is not French. Our meetings are constantly held in both languages.
4:45 p.m.
Conservative
Royal Galipeau Conservative Ottawa—Orléans, ON
And naturally, the CRTC has already selected the best candidates in its recruitment.
4:45 p.m.
Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
Yes, of all the federal organizations, we have the best employees.
4:45 p.m.
Voices
Oh, oh!
4:45 p.m.
Conservative
Royal Galipeau Conservative Ottawa—Orléans, ON
I did not doubt for a moment that this would be your answer, and I agree with you.
Mr. Chair, I will yield the floor to my colleague.
4:45 p.m.
Conservative
Corneliu Chisu Conservative Pickering—Scarborough East, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I would like to ask you, if possible, what kind of licence you are issuing—a provisional licence, a limited licence?
How long is the licence in place? What are the conditions of renewal, and after what time are you requiring someone to renew their licence?
The third question is if somebody from La Francophonie countries would like to have a television station, so a foreign licence in French, what should they apply for, or how do they get a licence, if they get one?
4:45 p.m.
Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
The act provides that we can grant licences for a maximum term of seven years. That is generally what we've been doing on the radio side, unless there's been some non-compliance issue, at which point we give a shorter licence term. That's the general rule; there will be exceptions to this.
On the television side, the licences have been shorter-term—five years—because of the point somebody mentioned earlier, the fast evolving pace. It really depends on the individual circumstances of each licence.
So it's a maximum of seven. Some of them are shorter than that. If you've been particularly non-compliant, they can be very short.
With respect to foreign services, the act provides that we can only give licences to Canadian-owned and -controlled companies. In the situation you're providing, if a foreign company wanted to be distributed in Canada, they would have to work through a distribution company and be added to what is called the eligible satellite list, which allows that foreign service not to be licensed by us but to be authorized for distribution. For instance, that's how something like CNN gets distributed in Canada. It's a foreign company; it's not licensed by us, but it's authorized on the foreign service list. The same thing could happen for others.
There have been French services. We can figure that out, if you're particularly interested in French services that have been added to the foreign list.
4:45 p.m.
NDP
Tyrone Benskin NDP Jeanne-Le Ber, QC
Regarding our obligations under the Official Languages Act, we also have to promote both languages.
I guess this is trailing on a bit from what my colleague was talking about.
For a bit of context, back in 1999 the CRTC opted to lower the obligations of broadcasters in terms of Canadian content for 10 years. That was fought in 2010, and those obligations returned.
Mr. Hutton, you mentioned that the majority, if not all, of the French programming comes out of Quebec. In areas such as Moncton and in Manitoba and so forth, where we've heard there is a desire to have more programming available to them that reflects their culture and who they are as Acadians, is there anything the CRTC can do to help promote that aspect,
that aspect of French outside Quebec, as in the case of Canadian content on the anglophone side?
4:45 p.m.
Executive Director, Broadcasting, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
The decrease we were discussing earlier was in television. It applied only to Quebec stations. The decrease over a 10-year period you are talking about was in radio. That was a reduction in francophone songs....
4:45 p.m.
NDP
Tyrone Benskin NDP Jeanne-Le Ber, QC
No, I was talking about 1999.
That was when broadcasters were given the right to simulcast, and they were heard, or listened to, when they said they would protect Canadian content. Within a 2-year period 22 Canadian shows went down to one. That was the case over the last 10 years up until 2010 when those obligations were put back into place for Canadian content on the English side.
I am wondering what kind of work can be brought through the CRTC to encourage and promote work outside of Quebec in the French language.
4:50 p.m.
Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
You're referring to the 1999 TV policy, which at one point took a perspective that we would get rid of the spending requirements and go to a number of hours of Canadian content in prime time. Recently, after reviewing all that, the commission went back to a spending requirement.
When I said earlier that most of the services in Canada are Quebec-based, I meant the specialty services, the cable or satellite-type services.
There are over-the-air French-language services available across the country. Many of them are in Quebec, obviously, but there are some elsewhere provided for by Radio-Canada—
4:50 p.m.
NDP
Tyrone Benskin NDP Jeanne-Le Ber, QC
Are they locally produced or produced in Quebec and then broadcast in those areas?
4:50 p.m.
Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
It's a mixture. For instance, the CBC station in Moncton, let's say, would take a lot of the network programming, but it would also have some percentage of locally produced shows.
4:50 p.m.
Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
Thank you.
4:50 p.m.
NDP
4:50 p.m.
Liberal
Stéphane Dion Liberal Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC
Mr. Blais, thank you for staying with us longer.
There is a focus group made up of CRTC representatives and representatives of official language minority communities. Would you say that this focus group is active and meets often?
4:50 p.m.
Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
That group will meet more often. As I was saying earlier, I have been an official languages champion in the past. So that is very important in my mind. The group was supposed to meet in November. It meets every six months on average. The November meeting could not be held because we were in the middle of hearings on CBC licence renewals, and that was the key topic of the meeting.
You will understand that the situation was a bit delicate. So we met on January 30, 2013. We will hold those meetings—for the francophone and anglophone sides—every six months on average.
