Madam Speaker, I rise today to speak to a topic that makes me very indignant. My indignation is shared by millions of Quebeckers and Canadians. Let me explain.
Once again, CBC/Radio-Canada, an institution funded with taxpayer money, is betraying the values, culture and trust of the people who pay for it to exist, the people it is supposed to serve and represent. The CBC chose to record a podcast in a Paris studio in order to avoid the Quebec accent. Shame on the CBC. This is an affront to me and my fellow Quebeckers. It is an affront to our culture, our contribution to Canada, and, lastly, our very existence, because the CBC's message is all too clear. The message is that the Quebec accent is offensive. That is unbelievable.
It is hurtful, but it is not the only thing here that hurts us. I cannot talk about the CBC without mentioning the waste of public resources. For one thing, why did it use a studio in a foreign country when Canada and Quebec have perfectly well-equipped facilities capable of meeting its media needs? Why did it waste public funds instead of supporting the local economy, encouraging local talent and respecting our linguistic and cultural identities? On the one hand, we have the CBC's blatant affront to Quebeckers, but on the other, we have the CBC's CEO, Catherine Tait, demanding more and more money from taxpayers.
Just yesterday, Ms. Tait told the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage that she was entitled to a bonus. I would remind my colleagues that, under Ms. Tait, the CBC's overall audience level plummeted by almost half and that she was forced to cut 800 jobs in December 2023 alone. These cuts left hundreds of Quebec families scrambling.
In her opening statement yesterday, Ms. Tait asked the government for even more taxpayer dollars. Does anyone know what she did the last time the government gave her taxpayer money? Of the $42‑million emergency top-up the Liberal government gave her, $18.4 million went to executive bonuses. Another $3.3 million went to 45 executives. If we divide $3.3 million by 45, we get a bonus of about $73,000 per executive. That is more than the annual income of the average Canadian worker, yet Ms. Tait wants a bonus.
What is the Bloc Québécois doing about all this? It is voting with the Liberals to protect CBC bonuses and support Ms. Tait. That is so appalling. Once again, the Bloc is showing that it will always put the Liberal Prime Minister's interests before those of Quebeckers. I keep looking for a Bloc Québécois in the House, but day after day, all I can find is a “Liberal Bloc”.
How can we tolerate or justify this kind of abuse of public funds when millions of Canadians are unable to make ends meet, when millions of Canadians are lining up every day at food banks and when the number of unhoused is skyrocketing across Canada? Meanwhile, the CBC is wasting millions of dollars in public funds in unjustified bonuses and recording podcasts in Paris because they do not like the Quebec accent. It is unbelievably ironic.
It is a question of respect. It is a question of respecting taxpayer money of course, but it is even more a question of respecting the taxpayers themselves. The CBC does not respect Canada's values and cultures. By choosing to avoid the Quebec accent, the CBC is telling us loud and clear that our regions' accents and identities are not good enough. That is what that means. How ironic on the part of an organization that purports to represent Canadian diversity. What is diversity if not the recognition and promotion of our differences rather than their contempt and rejection? The Quebec accent is an integral part of the Canadian identity, the Canadian francophone identity and our Canadian heritage. Rejecting the accent means rejecting part of Canada.
This contempt for Quebec and taxpayers did not appear out of thin air. It is fuelled by a Liberal government supported by the Bloc Québécois, which has lost all sense of priority. The Liberal government prefers paying the CBC millions of dollars and filling the pockets of its friend the president rather than thinking about Canadians' finances and addressing the real problems Canadians are facing after nine years of irresponsible governance.
On our side of the House, we refuse to tolerate such contempt. The common-sense Conservatives say no to this culture of contempt and privilege. Canadians and Quebeckers deserve better. The common-sense Conservatives will defend taxpayers, workers and families. They will defend their interests and their paycheques rather than abuse them to fill the pockets of their friends and the CBC's corrupt and contemptuous senior executives.
I cannot keep quiet about that. My colleague from Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier and I have been members of the Standing Committee on Official Languages for many years. We are seeing mismanagement by this government, who appoints a Governor General who does not speak French, here in Ottawa no less. The same goes for the Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick. Fortunately, she was just replaced by someone who is bilingual, in a bilingual province, but she was appointed by the Liberal government.
These are examples of this government's lack of accountability where French is never the top priority. We see it often at the Standing Committee on Official Languages. It is unfortunate, but lucky thing the Conservative Party is there to stand up for the real interests of all francophones.
Therefore, I move:
That the motion be amended by deleting all the words after the word “That” and substituting the following:
“the third report of the Standing Committee on Official Languages, presented on Tuesday, December 5, 2023, be not now concurred in, but that it be recommitted to the committee for further consideration, with a view to amending the same so as to recommend that the government refuse to approve any bonus or performance pay for the CBC/Radio-Canada president and chief executive officer, who presided over the decision to award production contracts to foreign companies in order 'to avoid the Quebec accent', provided that, for the purposes of this study:
(a) the acting Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Official Languages be ordered to appear before the committee, for at least two hours, at a date and time fixed by the Chair of the committee, but no later than Tuesday, December 17, 2024; and
(b) it be an instruction to the committee that it present the amended report to the House no later than Monday, January 27, 2025.”.