Official Languages Committee on Feb. 7th, 2018

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d’Orléans—Charlevoix, QC]

That's a very good example.

I live in a rural area. I know that the local media organizations in my region are very important. I'm not in the minority; all of us back home are francophone. I come from Quebec, and there are no anglophones in my region.

I have sat on the Official languages committee for a very long time. I wonder what we could have done. In the past, budget cuts were sometimes made under both the Conservatives and the Liberals, and I won't say which ones made them.

This is 2018, and new media are emerging. The government gave Radio-Canada $675 million. The party is of little importance here. Could we have given Radio-Canada less and the official language minority communities more? We could have given Radio-Canada $400 million and the rest to the official language minority communities to ensure the media organizations of those communities got their share of the pie.

[Alupa Clarke, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

In exchange for poorer coverage.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d’Orléans—Charlevoix, QC]

That's right.

[Marie Hélène Eddie]

I wouldn't take money away from Radio-Canada. Ideally, some should be given to the community media organizations because they play quite different roles. I don't think one can replace the other.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d’Orléans—Charlevoix, QC]

That's what I want to know.

[Marie Hélène Eddie]

Radio-Canada obviously plays an essential role in the minority communities and should represent the francophone communities even more. Ideally, it should have more resources to play that role more effectively. It does not have the resources it needs to spread into the regions. Even when it's in Acadie, it's in Moncton. It doesn't have the resources to be everywhere.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you very much, Mrs. Boucher.

Mr. Vandal, go ahead, please.

[Dan Vandal, Liberal, Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, MB]

Thank you, Messrs. Jolin and Michaud.

You represent daily, weekly, and monthly newspapers and community radio and television stations. Are the communities facing the same challenges?

[Carol Jolin]

The challenges are the same. Advertising has been cut everywhere. Radio-Canada may be in a better position thanks to the reinvestments that have been made. And that appears to be guaranteed. Before that, however, we were always at risk of losing some French-language services in the province.

The situation regarding community radio stations, weeklies, and community television stations is also difficult from one place to the next. For example, Rogers cancelled a lot of channels last fall.

I'm making the connection with an application that we submitted to Radio-Canada and that it approved. We asked it to direct 15% of the allocated budget to regional francophone stations outside Quebec. We want a budget allocated to that. Radio-Canada's officers agree with us.

[Dan Vandal, Liberal, Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, MB]

Is it for community radio?

[Carol Jolin]

It's for all the services combined.

[Bryan Michaud]

It's actually Radio-Canada.

[Carol Jolin]

Yes, it's Radio-Canada.

[Dan Vandal, Liberal, Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, MB]

What is the percentage now?

[Carol Jolin]

You want to know what percentage of the envelope goes outside Quebec?

[Bryan Michaud]

We should ask Radio-Canada, but I think it used to be about 10% or 12%.

[Dan Vandal, Liberal, Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, MB]

I have not had the chance to read your white paper yet. However, if we went to the good old days when we used to give money to the media for advertising to allow them to shift to digital, would everything be solved?

[Carol Jolin]

It would certainly be a step in the right direction, if we could count on the revenue to be able to do the job. Most organizations had to cut positions and reduce their hours. Take the Alliance des radios communautaires du Canada. The shows are largely pre-recorded. We then are able to produce a small block of local content with the help of the means at our disposal. It is important to have this local flavour we are looking for. We cannot provide only a lot of music content. As long as it's francophone music, it's great, but then there's little room for news and public affairs. However, those are important. As we mentioned, when people are aware of activities and informed about politics and their rights, the communities are affected.

I have been working for the Assemblée de la francophonie de l'Ontario for 15 months and I have given almost 300 interviews in that time. This means that the people in the community and all sorts of media are following us. They want to know what is happening and they want to communicate with other people in their community. In so doing, the community is much more involved.

Earlier, we talked about our media disappearing. If our media disappear, how will the communities be able to develop, grow and follow political news that concern them?

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Généreux is last to speak.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Jolin, you mentioned an amount just now. Did you say $1.1 million?

[Bryan Michaud]

It is $1.8 million.

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

How will the $1.8 million be shared? Actually, in the minority settings in Canada, what percentage do the private and community organizations represent?

[Carol Jolin]

It is almost one-third, one-third and one-third.

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

So it's one-third for the private sector and one-third for the community sector. What about the other one-third? Is it not one half to the private sector and the other half to the community sector?

[Carol Jolin]

No.

I will let my colleague give you the figures.