Transcript of Roundtable Discussions
Source : House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance
November 22, 2004
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The next group is Friends of Canadian Broadcasting. Mr. Morrison.
[Translation]
Mr. Ian Morrison (Spokesperson, Friends of Canadian Broadcasting): Mr. Chair and committee members, thanks for inviting friends of Canadian broadcasting to participate today. We are a watchdog group financed by 60,000 Canadian families. Our mission is to defend and enhance the quality and quantity of Canadian programming in the audiovisual system.
[English]
All of you know how important broadcast media are to the local communities across the land. Broadcast media are the lifeblood of the economy and community life of Canadian towns and cities. Good local media are an essential part of our democracy, and they are under exclusive federal jurisdiction.
From our research and the observation of our members we have discovered that the quantity and the variety of local broadcasting are declining throughout the country, especially during prime time when most Canadians are free to watch. We've passed on some data, attached to this brief, to back that up.
In the case of the CBC, Canada's national public broadcaster, this is not just unfortunate; it's against the law. The Broadcasting Act states that CBC's mandate is to reflect Canada and its regions to national and regional audiences while serving the special needs of those regions.
You may recall that four years ago Robert Rabinovitch, newly installed as CBC's president, proposed to kill CBC's local supper-hour shows in 16 cities. Only a storm of protest in Parliament and across the land caused him to relent, but he did cut those shows from 60 minutes to 30 minutes, and as a result their audience share dropped sharply. Again, the data are attached to this presentation.
This issue topped the list of questions when your colleagues on the heritage committee grilled Mr. Rabinovitch last week on the occasion of his proposed reappointment.
Your heritage committee colleagues recently undertook a thorough study of Canadian broadcasting. That report, now widely referred to as the Lincoln report, was originally submitted to Parliament in June 2003. Two weeks ago that same report, entitled “Our Cultural Sovereignty”, was unanimously resubmitted to the new government by the heritage committee for a new policy response.
“Our Cultural Sovereignty” contained 97 recommendations, all of them important. I want to focus on one that Friends of Canadian Broadcasting believes is the most important. It's all about local and regional broadcasting.
Your heritage committee colleagues wrote that:
| ...the Committee is of the view that it is incumbent upon the CBC to ensure that levels of localprogramming--based on local needs--are delivered to audiences. |
They added:
| ...the CBC cannot possibly be expected to act on one part of its public mandate--over and above its other responsibilities--if it is not ensured sufficient resources. |
The committee called on the CBC, by June 2004, to:
| ...deliver a strategic plan, with estimated resource requirements, to Parliament within one year of the tabling of this report on how it would fulfill its public service mandate to: |
| (a) deliver local and regional programming. |
Now, more than 17 months following the tabling of that landmark report and five months after the deadline laid out by the heritage committee, the CBC has still not responded.
Answering questions from heritage committee members last week during the hearing on his proposed reappointment, President Rabinovitch refused to disclose his plans, although he did tell a media scrum following that session that he planned to ask for additional funds to strengthen regional programs on television.
Friends of Canadian Broadcasting believe strengthening CBC's local and regional capacity is the single most important broadcasting investment the federal government can make—it's under exclusive federal jurisdiction—and will enable our cities throughout Canada to function better through more and better local information and identity.
We estimate that the CBC will need $100 million additional each year to make a meaningful contribution in local broadcasting. We recommend this investment to your committee, contingent on CBC management's coming up with an acceptable plan for reinvestment in its grassroots programming. Doing this will turn our national public broadcaster into a Canadian broadcasting corporation rather than essentially a Montreal or Toronto broadcasting corporation.
[Translation]
And finally, we would like to underline and endorse a second recommendation from Our Cultural Sovereignty:
| The Committee recommends that Parliament provide the CBC with increased and stable multi-year funding (3 to 5 years) so that it may adequately fulfil its mandate as expressed in the Broadcasting Act. |
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for giving us the chance to appear today.
The Chair: Thank you, Mr. Morrison.
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