Mr. Speaker, allow me to thank my colleague for his excellent speech, which set the stage about the extreme lack of sensitivity shown by CBC/Radio-Canada and its president, Catherine Tait. While Canadians are struggling to make ends meet, the cost of food has doubled, the cost of housing has doubled and young families have no hope of becoming homeowners in Canada, someone made a decision to give $18 million in bonuses to CBC executives. At at time like this, that is unacceptable and completely disconnected from reality. However, it is not surprising that the CBC is so out of touch. There is something I want to bring up.
Yesterday, in committee, the president of the CBC made a point of reminding us that CBC/Radio-Canada was founded in 1936, that since then the broadcaster has served the Canadian public and that she was very proud of what CBC/Radio-Canada has accomplished.
I took the liberty of consulting the history books to find out what led to the creation of CBC/Radio-Canada. The member for Winnipeg North was probably around when the Report of the Royal Commission on Broadcasting was tabled in the House in 1929. I am sure he remembers it. The report was presented to the Hon. Pierre-Joseph-Arthur Cardin, Minister of Marine and Fisheries, who was responsible for telecommunications in this country at the time. The report states that “[t]he Royal Commission on Radio Broadcasting was appointed by the Government to inquire into the existing situation in Canada and to examine the different methods adopted in other countries.”
That commission was created because nothing existed. There was no control and no way of ensuring that Canadians had access to radio waves and content. There was nothing. In 1929, the government decided to launch a royal commission of inquiry and give Mr. Aird the mandate to determine how Canadians could be better served. I will quote an excerpt from the report and I will try to make a connection with what is happening in the media sector and with regard to Radio-Canada. These are comments that were heard by the royal commission. The report says the following:
At present the majority of programs heard are from sources outside of Canada. It has been emphasized to us that the continued reception of these has a tendency to mould the minds of the young people in the home to ideals and opinions that are not Canadian. In a country of the vast geographical dimensions of Canada, broadcasting will undoubtedly become a great force in fostering a national spirit and interpreting national citizenship.
That was in 1929. Consider how the arrival of social media and the Internet has altered the state of communications today. Is that not exactly the situation we find ourselves in? What has the CBC done to foster a national spirit and sense of citizenship? Unfortunately, the CBC completely missed the boat. Just look at the CBC audience. Anyone who takes two seconds to really hear what I am saying will understand that I am talking about the CBC. We need to separate the CBC's role from that of Radio-Canada, which has been able to protect francophone culture in Canada and is still an important player in protecting that culture. I think it is important to look at what was done in the past. Later on, I will comment on an outrageous statement made by the president of CBC/Radio-Canada yesterday at the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage.
I will read two recommendations from the royal commission report at the time. It says “any broadcasting organization must be operated on a basis of public service” and that “stations providing a service of this kind should be owned and operated by one national company.” It also mentions that “[i]t is desirable...that provincial authorities should be in a position to exercise full control over the programs of the station or stations in their respective areas.” A little further it states that every province should appoint a “Provincial Radio Broadcasting Director...who will have full control of the programs broadcast by the station or stations located within the boundaries of the province for which he is responsible.”
Over the past few years, Radio-Canada has responded and adapted to the situation by ensuring a constant presence at the centre of Quebec culture. Unfortunately, the numbers prove it. The same numbers that Ms. Tait cited yesterday show that the CBC audience is practically in ruins. The CBC no longer plays the Crown corporation role envisaged by the Aird commission back in the day, or as the act that created the CBC/Radio-Canada said it would at the time, in the 1930s.
We are also here to talk about the outrageous way that president Catherine Tait has flatly refused to give up any severance pay or bonus pay at a time when the Crown corporation is no longer fully assuming its role. Unfortunately, on her watch, we witnessed different positions that showed contempt for Quebec and Quebeckers. It all started with the CBC podcast that was translated into French in Paris. That was when the full scope of the situation became clear. Why did they do that? They did it, apparently, out of dislike for the Quebec accent on the Radio-Canada side.
Instead of doing business with our experts and people from our culture, someone at CBC/Radio-Canada chose to have the podcast translated in Paris, supposedly because the Quebec accent was not good enough for the CBC. It was probably someone who works at the CBC, not at Radio-Canada. That set off a whole saga. Eventually, the president and CEO came to testify before the committee, where she apologized and said that such a thing would never happen again. Who did she apologize to, and what were the consequences? There were obviously no consequences, because they paid themselves bonuses. The 1,100 people at CBC/Radio-Canada who are not governed by union agreements got both raises and bonuses. That is what we learned yesterday when Ms. Tait appeared before the committee.
The translation of this podcast is a brazen attack by the CBC, so how can executives be allowed to collect bonuses, which are supposed to compensate excellence, when Canadians are suffering and cannot make ends meet at the end of the month?
Unfortunately, the Bloc Québécois voted with the Liberals yesterday to defend the president and CEO of the CBC, who allowed the French-language podcast to be dubbed in France because the CBC did not like the Quebec accent. The Bloc Québécois preferred to defend the Prime Minister and the CBC's CEO instead of standing up and punishing her for showing such contempt for Quebeckers. The motion defeated by the Bloc Québécois read as follows:
That the committee report to the House that it calls on the Liberal government's Privy Council Office to not approve any bonuses, performance pay, or severance package for the outgoing President and CEO of the CBC, Catherine Tait.
I think the Bloc Québécois should have listened carefully to what Ms. Tait said yesterday. I asked her if she had confidence in the people at Radio-Canada to ensure continuity and take over going forward to protect Quebec and francophone culture and identity for the country. She replied as follows: As I have said many times, are we going to ask Canadians to support a federal national institution for 20% of the population? Personally, I think that is a bit much.
What she said was beyond the pale. It is perfectly normal for the federal government to invest in protecting francophone culture in this country. It is absolutely necessary for the federal government to ensure that the necessary funds are maintained so that Radio-Canada can continue to play its role for francophones, because it has proven, with figures to back it up, that it has done so in recent years, and it will continue to do so if it has the support. Unfortunately, Ms. Tait should understand before she leaves that it is time to put an end to this policy of rewarding poor results.