Speeches and Interviews

September 17, 1998

National Symposium on Canada's Official Languages

Perrin Beatty

It is with great pleasure that I have accepted the invitation to participate in this Symposium. Both support for the official languages and the development of official language minority communities in Canada are at the heart of the CBC's mandate.

As Canada's national public broadcaster, delivering services in French and English across the country is not just a legal obligation but a source of strength and richness. There is no other broadcaster in the country that is so much a part of Canada's linguistic duality. We do not simply provide network programs throughout the country. Rather, we invest in the communities: our schedules reflect all regions being served and we produce in every region of Canada. Furthermore, it is our role, entrusted to us by Parliament, to draw on the strengths of our French and English services to build bridges between Canada's cultures.

I am sure you are all well aware that the activities of CBC encompass a multitude of services. Today I want to outline some of the impressive impacts of the CBC — as a cultural and news organization — on linguistic minorities in Canada through our Radio and Television and New Media services.

I will also touch briefly on our responsibility to reflect each linguistic group to the other through our cross-cultural programs.

Finally, I will outline the role the CBC plays in la francophonie internationale.

Let me turn first to our regional presence

A presence… across Canada, in French and in English — not just in major markets and not just where the market is large enough to justify regional services. In many parts of Canada CBC provides a lifeline to minority linguistic communities, by giving them the opportunity to hear and see themselves in their own language. Helping minority language communities thrive remains a key role for the CBC, in all its services, from radio to new media.

A presence … which is enriched through an increased number of partnerships as well as through the opportunity to work with independent producers from all parts of Canada - from producing a documentary in Winnipeg to a network show in Ottawa.

A presence … which translates into jobs: over 800 Radio and Television jobs in French outside Quebec and more than 100 for English Radio and Television in Quebec. CBC is the only broadcaster with French-speaking reporters working west of Ottawa.

A presence … which translates into returns for Canada's artists. For example, over 40% of the budgets for CBC Radio Two and la Chaîne culturelle are spent directly on artists who come from all regions of Canada.

A presence … which is achieved through the involvement, in local or regional events, of our artists, artisans and managers in local communities as masters of ceremonies, competition judges, or to provide technical assistance.

A presence … which translates into regular and useful contacts with minority communities in all the regions where we are established. To give you an idea of the scope of our regional contacts, there are, in a given year, approximately one thousand official discussions and consultations.

Allow me to give you some examples. First let's talk about French Television and Radio.

Radio-Canada's French Television network reaches 99% of francophones in Canada and produces 1,500 hours of programming for all its regional audiences. Approximately 250 hours of regional productions are broadcast on the national network.

In 1998, francophones in Newfoundland have finally been able to watch the Atlantic edition of Ce Soir produced in Moncton as opposed to the Montreal edition.

In early 1999, francophones in Yukon will be able to receive our French Television's signal directly, without having to go through a cable operator.

Musikotrip, Trajectoires and Temps d'affaires produced in Moncton, Clan destin from the West, Expresso and Impact made in Ottawa, are all examples of regional productions. Furthermore, Vie de chalet and Chez nous, though produced in Ottawa, are broadcast on the national network.

RDI, our Réseau de l'information, reaches 7 million people for a penetration rate of 81.5%.

A third of all original programs shown on RDI come from regions outside Montreal. Each week, RDI broadcasts more than 40 hours of regional programming, produces more than 200 reports from various regions, and visits approximately 100 Canadian cities.

Let's talk about our French Radio, which incidentally, is the only radio serving Francophones from sea to sea. Our regional stations produce programs aired during peak listening periods, in the morning from 6 to 9, at lunch time and in the late afternoon during the drive home period.

This represents more than 30,000 hours of regional programming each year or 600 hours per week.

Radio-Canada's French Radio recently came to an agreement with the Alliance des radios communautaires (ARC) for the transmission of regular reports and capsules to be aired on community radio stations.

Let's now look at English Television and Radio in Quebec.

With staff in Montreal and Quebec City, CBC Television in the province of Quebec produces seven and a half hours of local news and information programming per week.

It also contributes regularly to The National, Newsworld, and other regional and network programs. In fact, last year English Television in Quebec contributed approximately 12,000 items to these programs and networks. Both The National and Newsworld maintain bureaus in Montreal and Quebec City.

CBC Radio One and CBC Radio Two both produce regional and network programs from Montreal. This translates into some 4,000 hours of local and regional programming for Radio One and more than 1,600 hours for Radio Two, most of which is broadcast either live or in recorded form on the network.

In addition to news and current affairs, Radio One produces programs such as All in a Weekend, Breakaway and Art Talks which takes listeners on a tour of Quebec arts and culture. In a network program, C'est la vie, Bernard St-Laurent looks at francophone culture both in and outside Quebec.

Both Radio and Television networks are intimately involved in the life of the community — CBC staff act as guest speakers, moderators and masters of ceremonies for many events and cultural activities. The stations also provide a venue for community and cultural groups to publicize their events via the daily billboards and art phone-in publicity line.

A very important part of the CBC's mandate is the provision that we must contribute to the flow and exchange of cultural expression. I would like to touch briefly on what we call Cross-Cultural Programs.

Teams from both French and English Television networks are collaborating on a major project to develop and produce Canada - A People's History / Le Canada - Une histoire populaire. This epic 30-hour series will be aired in the 1999-2000 season.

Common projects are being developed for programs such as Life & Times / Personnages and teams are also pooling their resources for stories for programs such as the fifth estate and Enjeux.

Programs produced by one network are often shown on the other, for example: Emily of New Moon, In the Sleep Room, or Omertà and Marguerite Volant, as well as a popular children's program such as Ouimzie to name just these few.

To mark the 30th anniversary of Michel Tremblay as playwright, CBC Radio Two and La Chaîne culturelle aired, one night in English and the other in French, Ste-Carmen de la Main. In addition to C'est la vie, which I mentioned earlier, English Radio features programs such as Jim Corcoran's À propos which makes francophone musical culture known to anglophones, while French Radio offers Anglosong, which makes anglophone musical culture known to francophones.

Infoculture, our on-line cultural information magazine, is now available through both our Radio-Canada and CBC Internet sites. Infoculture provides Canadians with a complete listing of cultural activities and events throughout the country and uses information gathered by arts reporters from both Radio and Television.

Now, let me spend a few moments on the role we play in la francophonie internationale.

Beside being the official broadcaster of the Summit to be held in September 1999, in Moncton, our French Radio and Television services have already started planning a number of programs. For example, our French Radio has initiated discussions with French-speaking partners to set-up, for the duration of the Summit, a Radio Jeunesse service connecting young people from francophone countries so they can talk to each other.

Meanwhile, our French Television plans to launch, at the Summit, a number of documentaries produced with French-speaking partners.

On top of special events such as this Summit, we maintain close relationships with many European and African francophone stations and have established exchange agreements with them for the training of journalists, the co-production and broadcast of programs.

I hope these very few examples have provided you with some understanding of our involvement in supporting and nurturing official language minority communities in Canada. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak to you this morning.