Speeches and Interviews

November 24, 1999

Remarks to the Canadian Centre for Management Development Armchair Discussion

by Guylaine Saucier

One of the greatest satisfactions of solving a puzzle or a problem often comes in that moment of clarity just before the pieces fall into place. That's when the seemingly impossible becomes not only possible, but near at hand. What once appeared to be isolated fragments suddenly fit, and a picture or a solution, simple and complete, emerges.

There is every reason to believe that such a moment for the CBC is approaching faster than one might have thought. After years of tumult and uncertainty, the CBC is about to begin a fresh and uniquely creative segment of its colourful history.

Consider some of the signs that inspire my optimism:

Observers and employees alike have applauded the appointment of our New President and CEO, Robert Rabinovitch. Mr. Rabinovitch officially assumed his responsibilities last week, and I can tell you, is fully engaged and actively pursuing his mandate already.

With a strategy to guide us, we are more efficient, more responsive and stronger than ever before.

With a recent reiteration by the Government to stable funding, we can move aggressively to provide value for Canadians, no matter where they live or how they wish to access our services.

At the end of an unprecedented series of mandate and performance reviews, the multi-dimensional role of the CBC has coalesced with sharper focus — for the public that owns us; the government that funds us; and for the CBC itself.

And finally, we could not be better, or more naturally, suited for the leadership role needed in the global information environment that has transfigured our world. The survival of Canadian culture, the stock and trade of the CBC, is now a priority topic of a public debate that will only intensify as competition increases and new technology provides Canadians with more choices.

With a broadcast family of television, radio and new media services of unparalleled Canadian content and quality, the best news is that we are ready to continue to chronicle and celebrate this country's rich diversity and cultural depth in world-class style.

Not that long ago, such enthusiasm might have seemed misplaced.

During my tenure at the CBC, the Corporation has been on the front line of continuous assaults involving funding cuts, mandate reviews and major public policy shifts.

Like many Canadians, I am not particularly comfortable using the language of war. But it is difficult to escape it when describing what we survived. You don't cut 30% from your budget and eliminate 3,000 positions within three years without feeling besieged.

Those days are thankfully behind us. Ahead is the adventure and challenge of a new century.

We are not alone in our high hopes for our future, or in our justifiable pride in our past accomplishments.

Proof of that is in repeated public opinion surveys that tell us that Canadians want more of what CBC has to offer, not less. For example, in 1997, even the CBC anticipated losses in revenue in our first year of a fully Canadianized English television schedule. But those losses did not materialize — in large measure because Canadians liked what they saw on their screens.

Proof is in the string of awards bestowed upon our television and radio programming, most recently the 41 of 75 Geminis presented earlier this month to programs telecast on CBC Television and, on the French-language front, the 38 Gémeaux last September for programs aired on Radio-Canada.

Perhaps most gratifying, however, is the wealth of evidence offered by Canadians themselves.

The CBC has always stirred public emotion, as well it should. Almost three quarters of our funding comes from the public purse. Canadians have every right to know that their hard-earned tax dollars are being put to good use. They also have every right to assurances that their voices will continue to be heard in the ever-increasing global clatter that transforms the communications industry day by day.

Recently, Canadians have had ample opportunity to express their views about the CBC — and they did, in record numbers. Over the years, the CBC has single-handedly spawned a veritable cottage industry of uniquely Canadian Royal Commissions, task forces and study groups to examine our mandate and performance.

Last spring, the CRTC received written submissions from more than 4,500 people and heard oral presentations from about 100 groups and individuals during a marathon of public sessions involving an all-encompassing examination of 32 separate CBC radio and broadcast licences.

Stretched over a two-year period, the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, which recently submitted its recommendations to Parliament, included the CBC in its study of the evolving role of the federal government in support of Canadian culture.

Then, of course, the CBC conducts its own self-examination and ongoing accountability forums. Annual reports provide full disclosure of our expenses and revenue sources. Our electronic town halls, our full-time Ombudsman, our talk-back lines and our interactive Web sites are among the well-used vehicles that allow the public to vent its frustration, extend its praise or offer its advice to the CBC.

Surely, no other news gathering operation, or for that matter, any other Crown corporation, is submitted to such intensive public scrutiny. Imagine if every government department and agency were put to that kind of rigorous test.

That's not to say the CBC cringes at the thought of microscopic interest — in fact, we thrive on it.

What we've heard from the public in those two years tells us that we are on the right course.

Let's examine, for example, some of the comments made by witnesses to the Heritage committee:

An immigrant credited CBC radio for giving her more than enough information about her adopted country to enable her to pass her Canadian citizenship test with ease. That's a common accolade for our radio services, which blend regional news and information with pan-Canadian programming that reach every corner of the country.

A performing artist underlined the value of the CBC to the development and support of theatre artists, musicians and writers whose work would otherwise be lost in the commercial flood of imports. Five years of cuts to CBC, the artist said, had a "profound affect" on a cultural community forced to scramble for an increasingly scarce supply of seed production money.

A former Toronto resident who moved to northwestern Ontario noted that the CBC was a crucial link between isolated communities and the outside world. That describes the very essence of CBC's obligations to Canadians. If we are to fulfil our public policy role, we must ensure that every Canadian is able to connect to quality Canadian content, particularly in the age of the Internet.

These people echo the sentiments of countless Canadians who consider the CBC to be at the heart of cultural expression in Canada. As the Heritage committee noted in its report earlier this year and I quote: "The tenor of the testimony suggests to the Committee that the CBC is perceived by Canadians as an integral part of the fabric of this country."

Certainly, the preservation of that Canadian cultural fabric — and CBC's critical role in support of it — is once again of paramount political and personal concern. Anyone with access to a radio, a television or a computer knows the threats unleashed by information and communications technologies that have all but eradicated natural borders.

We live in a world where $100 million is transferred in the click of a mouse from one bank account to another across the world. Where choice is an everyday word with a particularly American ring. Where the expression 'speed wins' — a phrase that rarely finds its way into the arts and cultural lexicon — is the prevailing mantra of the global economy.

As Prime Minister Jean Chretien noted in his response to the Speech from the Throne on October 13, how successful Canada is in this new age depends on more than how competitive our businesses become. It relies on more than how well we protect the social and natural resources that make us what we are.

More and more, our confidence as Canadians will spring from our artists, writers and performers — the members of a cultural community that is as vulnerable as it is vibrant, as needful as it is nurturing. For more than six decades, the CBC has been their natural home.

More and more, we will look to our journalists and commentators to discover our own Canadian stories, told in our own voices, reflecting our own values and aspirations. That, too, is what the CBC does best.

We produce programs the private sector would never consider — programs that enhance our appreciation of our heritage.

Look at our record. The CBC is the only broadcaster capable of operating right across the country in terms of production and distribution. The only broadcaster with services in English, French and eight Aboriginal languages. The only one with a sustained international presence that serves as the world's window on Canada, and a home away from home for Canadians abroad.

Our radio services in English and French set standards in high-quality information and entertainment programming that cuts through the clatter of commercial mediocrity. Our specialty channels, Newsworld and RDI, have elevated around-the-clock news and information programming to new levels of popularity and commercial success, setting the stage for a host of other innovative CBC projects waiting in the wings.

And in the explosive real world of new media, the CBC has not only enhanced its cutting-edge services but, in a few short years, has molded the Internet into a virtual Canadian reality.

Confident of our place in the cultural landscape of Canada, the CBC has both the vision and the resources to do even more.

Last month, the Prime Minister stressed the need to support and promote Canadian talent, citing the "unprecedented opportunity" before us to ensure that our creative artists have new and accessible avenues of expression.

The CBC knows what the Prime Minister is talking about.

That is precisely what drove us to push the envelope in the development of our new media resources while the rest of the broadcast industry lingered in debate over the merits and viability of the Internet. Because of our boldness, we can offer features the likes of Galaxie, the first pay audio service that since 1997 has offered 30 channels of commercial-free music via direct-to-home satellite and cable.

It's why we have played a proactive role since 1990 in the development of Digital Audio Broadcasting, which immeasurably improves the quality of radio delivery and opens the door to a range of new data services.

It's why we concentrate on providing Canadians with familiar reference points that span regions and link communities and cultures. Only the CBC would attempt to produce Canada: A People's History, an ambitious 30-hour history series in French and English that documents the flourishing of a nation. Only the CBC would take the responsibility to enrich our linguistic heritage with programs co-produced and simultaneously broadcast in both official languages.

Providing an electronic stage for our artists is a vital part of what Canada's public broadcaster, the CBC, was created to do.

That explains our aggressive pursuit of the Réseau des Arts (RDA), a specialty channel dedicated exclusively to arts and culture in French.

We were pleased to learn, last week, that the report submitted to the Government by the CRTC, following our appeal of the decision concerning the CRTC's rejection of the project, was in favour of the creation of a French-language television network dedicated to the arts. Jointly with our current partners, La Sept ARTE and BCE Media, we will reexamine the Réseau des arts project, we will explore new partnerships and we will fine a new application with the CRTC in due course.

The CBC believes that seven million French-speaking Canadians should have equivalent access to a channel of the same quality and variety as those available to English-language audiences. Without it, a vital element of our Canadian artistic community is deprived of a domestic and international platform, not to mention the ability to celebrate and strengthen their language and culture in a medium dominated by English-language and American culture.

A number of prominent individuals and organizations thought that way too. Last summer, at their urging, we invoked a process for reconsideration in light of key provisions of the Broadcasting Act that call for the expansion of programming in the French-language broadcasting system in under-represented categories.

I like to think that those kinds of actions typify the wave of confidence that is sweeping over the CBC after so many years of self-doubt and denial.

The kind of confidence that propelled us to develop a project like RDA with La Sept ARTE, the French public arm of the French-German consortium ARTE — knowing that it was in the best interests of the country and recognizing the merits of strategic partnerships.

The kind of confidence that first blossomed when we successfully Canadianized our prime-time television schedules in the midst of devastating budget cuts. Or dared to be different with our pioneer programming in radio, television and new media.

As everyone here knows well, there is a place where risk-management and risk-taking intersect. Good governance of a public enterprise has always involved a delicate balancing act. More than one bottom line must be met. Services of good value must be delivered to shareholders, in our case, the people of Canada. The trust of people who rely upon you must be impeccably maintained — whether it is in the journalistic sense of getting the facts right, or in creative endeavours that attempt to capture ephemeral moments in time.

Yet in today's competitive environment, you cannot stand still or rest on what you know you do well. In the formative years of television, critics predicted that the medium was doomed to failure because families would not be willing to sit in front of a TV screen for any length of time. Imagine if the industry had taken those critics at their word.

If you are looked upon as a leader in your field, as CBC is, you must be willing to take chances, as calculated and as cool as they must be. You must, in short, be willing to venture where others are unwilling, or unable, to go.

That's why I am so confident that CBC is about to arrive at that satisfying moment where the pieces, as if by magic, fall into place. Of course, there is no magic in what we did to get here. It was, and continues to be, hard, hard work.

But there is magic in what develops before our eyes and ears. The wonder is the unfolding story of a dynamic and ever-changing country. Telling its story, and telling it well, is what the CBC does best. And, in the end, that story represents a risk worth taking.