Official Languages Committee on March 21st, 2016

[Catherine Cano]

Everything that is broadcast on television, we broadcast directly on the web. If you give a speech in the House, it is on the web. There are three options on the Internet: French, English and the floor. You do not have to listen to the interpretation, and I am pleased about that. I understand the question; it is a really good one.

It is impossible to provide a written translation of what you are saying as you go along because we do not know what you are going to say. There would be errors in the text in both English and French. However, I will think about what you have asked me. There must surely be a compromise.

Having said that, I believe that, in several places, you can change the audio by changing your television settings. The floor audio option is also available. I know that is the case in Ottawa, but I would have to check what is available elsewhere in the country.

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

A long time ago, someone said that the word “impossible” does not exist, and that it was to be found only in the dictionary of fools. I believe Napoleon Bonaparte said that. Therefore, a solution can certainly be found. We could give you the text in advance, as is the case in the House. If you already had the text, the translation could be done quickly.

[Catherine Cano]

Yes, of course.

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

My second questions concerns youth and schools.

I have been an educator for 30 years. I would like to know what strategies are used to engage youth. That is part of your future action plan. How do young people in school access CPAC? Do they know it exists? I have never really heard them talk about it. We need to find a way to appeal to young people. How can we engage them more? Perhaps this could be done in the schools, but we have to find away to do it.

Could you briefly comment on that?

[Catherine Cano]

You are quite right. I couldn't agree with you more.

We are planning to contact all schools because CPAC is a well-kept secret. Our content is good and is considered to be objective and non-partisan. We have credibility when it comes to explaining what a bill or a procedure is. We are going to have a team examine what can be done even at the elementary school level. We often think of universities, which is obviously a good idea. However, the more young people understand at an earlier age about what Canada is, what it is made up of and how it works, the more engaged they will be as citizens.

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

Absolutely, the entrepreneurial spirit takes root in kindergarten. Thus, we could start talking about politics in kindergarten. That is of great interest to me.

I would briefly like to touch on the issue of establishing a data bank or bank of information. I am not as familiar with all the projects as you are, but if we documented the important role played by the Prime Minister, the Speaker of the House, and the chairs of committees, and the work done, we could easily access that information.

For example, in order to engage people, parents, the community, students, teachers and other people in my school board, I created a themed questionnaire on communication, transportation, and early childhood development, among other topics. People who completed the questionnaire could win a prize. Once completed, all the information was committed to paper. Anyone looking for information on a topic of interest to them could ask for it at any time. There was no need to call anyone because I could obtain all the pertinent information on the subject from the questionnaires.

That could be one approach. I am just throwing ideas out to you. I certainly don't have all the answers.

[Catherine Cano]

To be brief, that is an excellent idea.

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

In a four-hour interview, I could certainly share more ideas.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[Catherine Cano]

We will an opportunity to meet again. I am quickly taking notes, and making a mental note of all this.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you very much, Mr. Samson.

Mr. Généreux, you have the floor.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Thank you, chair.

Ms. Cano, I am beginning to have doubts about your background. You never once said “là, là” since the start of the meeting. I find that surprising.

[Catherine Cano]

C'est trop plaisant!

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Oh, oh!

It was a pleasure meeting with you. We did not know one another, but our meeting was very productive. I put forward several ideas. You asked how CPAC could have a greater presence in Canadians' lives. I believe that was your original question. I asked you several questions and I am now going to ask some in this committee.

I believe that the following question is an extremely important one. As far as I know, almost every MP has a website. By typing our names in Google or other search engines, people are increasingly directed to our personal website rather than parliament's website. I am wondering whether you could ask MPs to include a link on their personal website. It would be useful, even on the House of Commons website. In fact, this is basically about the democratization of information. These links would make this information available and provide quick access to CPAC.

My wife and I are big fans of CPAC. My wife is an anglophone and I am a francophone. I apologize to the interpreters, but we try to follow the debates in the language in which they are conducted. We do not have access to the stream that carries the floor audio and inevitably we have to switch between the French stream and the English stream every time we listen to CPAC. It is somewhat exasperating. Mr. Samson raised this issue.

The idea is to promote your organization which, I believe, is privately owned. You do not have a competitor in the public sector given that you are the only organization doing what you do. Your funding comes from cable companies, right?

[Catherine Cano]

It comes from the subscriptions.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

I don't know whether, after our meeting, you determined if it would be possible to establish closer ties with the public sector, that is, the government in Ottawa and also the MPs, so that it would be easier for people to find you. After our meeting, I downloaded the app on my cell phone. As I mentioned to you, in my opinion the background colours are very drab and not welcoming.

In these surroundings it is very nice, but don't try to attract young people with such colours. I am sure you will not have any success. I believe you will inevitably have to rebrand CPAC. It is even difficult to see your grey logo on our phones. If it were yellow, it would be more visible. Do you know what I am trying to say? You need to revisit your organization's image.

Earlier on someone mentioned the importance of going to see people in the regions. We talked about this at our meeting. We did a report on it. On the way back from New Brunswick, we had a brief stop in our area. A broadcast about MPs and what they do, not just in Ottawa but also in their riding, would probably be very popular. We could promote it. In fact, we also promote the content you broadcast.

I wonder if you have some comments about this. I am bombarding you with comments, but I don't really have any questions for you. According to the discussions we have already had, you are prepared to make certain changes.

We talked about young people earlier. They are obviously the future. We talked about programs made by and for youth, which would not use colours such as these, of course. It would even be possible to work with local communities.

Given that your funding comes from cable companies, could you work with local broadcasters? In my area, local television is really popular even though it does not really have public affairs programs.

Could you establish ties with these regional broadcasters? They could help you shed a little more light on the world of federal politics.

[Catherine Cano]

You have made many good arguments. I am nodding in approval, because it is music to my ears. Some people might think it is somewhat difficult, but it isn't.

I believe that partnerships are the future. We should not become isolated, especially at the local level, where there are many stations. Of course, it depends on the situation. We are broadcast by cable companies with more than 2,000 subscribers, but not by those with fewer subscribers.

Of course it depends on the project. We currently have an idea for a project. If it gets off the ground, there would be an association with the regions, and local television and radio. This is something entirely new.

In any event, all media realize that they need to stick together. I would like to tell you just how touched I am by how CPAC is being received. Most organizations want to meet with me to establish partnerships so that we can help one another out. We really complement one another. We certainly do not offer the same thing as the others, and that is the way it should be.

As for your idea about renewal, it is obviously part of the strategy to rebrand. The brand here is strong. If we want the public to see the work that is done and truly understand the process and the democratic institutions, we have to be accessible. We have to adapt to the changing times. That is something we will be thinking about in the next few months.

In fact, I had taken note of it the last time you spoke to me about it. You made me laugh a lot. I saw you again because we need to hear these kinds of comments. It is a pleasure to meet with you one-on-one. We are all in a different place, we all have concerns, and it is important to remind us of that.

For us, it is a moment in time: we will be celebrating our 25th anniversary. I am new. We have a fantastic team. We have done many things. Our current app is great. However, we are working on making it more accessible. For example, we want our mobile app to make it possible to click on five things that are currently happening. It would replace something that perhaps does not provide enough options. The material or content are there. We just have to work on the language and the discourse. We have to make better use of communications.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you, Ms. Cano. We will come back to that shortly.

I have two questions before we move on to the next person.

Some people have mentioned to me that they find it confusing that CPAC's channel location varies from place to place.

At some point are you planning to do something so that people will be able to tune into CPAC on the same channel number?

[Catherine Cano]

That is a dream. I have to say that it is not up to us. That decision must be made by the different cable companies. Having said that, we are aware of the problem.

In Ottawa, for example, given that access to CPAC English audio is on channel 24, people wonder why the French is on channel 614. That's because all French-language networks, such as TFO or RDI—which is on channel 613—have a channel number in the 600s. It is somewhat logical for CPAC to be with the other French-language stations. In Montreal, and actually everywhere on the Vidéotron network in Quebec, CPAC is grouped with news networks such as RDI, CBC News Network, MSNBC and CNN.

Moreover, Vidéotron will soon be broadcasting in HD. It will be among the other networks that broadcast in high definition, which is a good thing.

We could ask ourselves the following question. If CNN is on channel 33 almost everywhere, why is CPAC, which has 100% Canadian content, not on the same channel everywhere? We want to ensure that Canadians can easily find us. We are working on it.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you.

I would like to make a brief comment. Our committee's mandate also mentions the promotion of our country's linguistic duality outside Canada. I am just bringing this up to see whether you can collaborate and help us promote Canada's linguistic duality elsewhere.

Now that the point has been made, I give the floor to Mr. Arseneault.

[René Arseneault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Welcome.

Thank you for the interesting information. I am truly proud and pleased to learn that, as part of your mandate, you ensure that all documents are translated into both official languages. It is good to hear, especially at the Standing Committee on Official Languages. As an Acadian, I am particularly attuned to that because I know that the North American francophonie was established in Acadia in 1604, to be precise. I say that in all modesty. Moreover, this was in our friend Darrell Samson's province.

Ms. Cano, I was involved in community radio as a volunteer for just over 12 years. I remember that in the beginning we had to fight to obtain a CRTC licence. We had a specific mandate, which clearly established what we could and could not do, as well as the requirements and objectives to be achieved.

Did CPAC have the same experience when applying for its CRTC licence?

[Catherine Cano]

Do you want to know whether it was difficult?

[René Arseneault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Is your mandate spelled out by the requirements of the CRTC licence?

[Catherine Cano]

Yes, we have licence conditions. For example, for French programming we absolutely have to have a specific percentage.

[René Arseneault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

That is the 25% you mentioned earlier.