Speeches and Interviews

May 13, 1999

Presentation to the Senate Committee on Transport and Communications by Guylaine Saucier and The Honourable Perrin Beatty

By Guylaine Saucier, Chair, Board of Directors, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and The Honourable Perrin Beatty, President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

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CBC President Perrin Beatty and I would like to thank the Senate Committee on Transportation and Communication for this opportunity to come before you today to discuss the CBC's role as an instrument of cultural policy and to explain its strategic directions we have taken.

This is a crucial time for the survival of Canada's own distinct culture. The sheer volume and force of globalization, on an economic, technological and cultural level is putting to test the mechanisms we have crafted to protect our cultural sovereignty. More than ever before, we must be vigilant, and wisely use all of the tools at our disposal, or else we risk losing our identity, and our unique voice as a nation. Your understanding of this cultural ecology is essential if we are to make our Canadian voice carry into the next century. The CBC — by any measure — is a cornerstone of our common culture, and we hope that our discussions here today will assist your understanding of the cultural landscape, and the role that the CBC will play in the years to come.

But this discussion is also timely for other reasons as well:

• First, in less than a fortnight, the CRTC will begin hearings examining most of the CBC's licences.

• Second, the CBC has put forward a strategic plan that we believe will in part address the issue of cultural sovereignty and will allow the Corporation to fulfill its mandate.

• And third, the World Trade Organization is flashing warning signs that many of the tools that Canada has used in past to promote and protect cultural sovereignty may not survive in future. If and when protection mechanisms are removed, the CBC, as Canada's public broadcaster, will remain the last bastion for the promotion of Canadian culture.

Let us look at the role the CBC plays

In the early days the CBC was created as a bulwark against American expansionism. Like the birth of this country, the CBC was an act of public will, created not to respond to market needs but to serve as a force to knit people together.

So how does the CBC contribute as prime instrument in fulfilling cultural policy?

The first tenet in the range of policies which shapes our cultural landscape is to enhance pride in Canada.

Many other institutions contribute to this objective and the CBC claims no monopoly here. But is there any single institution that has done more — consistently and over 60 years — to enhance pride in Canada than the CBC?

The CBC stands as a beacon in times of crisis and in times of joy.

By providing Canadian with familiar reference points, spanning regions, linking communities, regions and cultures, the CBC acts as a forum which allows us to share our values, and foster greater understanding amongst ourselves.

Whether we are capturing Paul Henderson's winning goal in the Canada Cup in 1972, celebrating important national moments, such as the creation of Nunavut, or rejoicing in the exploits of our Olympic athletes…

Whether we are serving witness to Canadians from across the country as they help their neighbours in the Manitoba or Saguenay flood, or ravaging forest fires, or using our technology to break through the isolation of families struggling to survive last year's ice storm…

By telling these stories, by capturing these moments and bringing them into our living rooms, the CBC enhances the understanding of and pride in Canada.

As an instrument of cultural policy it is essential that the CBC acts as steward of our heritage.

The word 'heritage' means many things to many people. But it certainly includes such legendary entertainers such as Lorne Greene, Bruno Gerussi, Roger Baulu, Anne Murray and Louis Quilico. It includes athletes like Gordie Howe, Maurice Richard and Frank Mahovlich — all brought into national consciousness by the CBC.

Heritage includes the political, social and economic upheavals that have defined us as a people — the Quiet Revolution, the search for self-government by our indigenous peoples the decline of the Newfoundland cod fishery, the rise of Western populism. The CBC has been there to chronicle it all, to help Canadians understand, to be an integral part of our lives and our perception of the characters and events that form our heritage.

We produce programs private broadcasters would never consider — programs whose primary goal is to our enhance our appreciation of our heritage. Only the CBC would bring to life Canada: a People's History, a 30-hour history series for prime time airing. Produced in English and French, such a project would be too ambitious and too risky for private sector broadcasters. Nor would the private sector provide a French-language radio service to every region of Canada, regardless of the size of market, or produce eight different regional news bulletins to serve French Canadians across the country, or maintain a northern service broadcasting in eight different aboriginal languages.

The independence of our news and information service, as guaranteed by the Broadcasting Act, strongly reinforces our rich heritage of freedom and democracy. This is an important thing to remember — especially when the dictates of journalistic independence occasionally generate tension with the government of the day.

Over the years these voices and images have constituted a considerable audio-visual heritage.

Finally, to maintain its culture, identity and sense of self, it is imperative that we have access to Canadian voices and Canadian spaces.

That is the CBC. It is what we do every day.

The CBC is the only broadcaster to serve all regions of Canada in both English and French, with radio television and internet services. But we take our responsibility to enrich our linguistic heritage one step further.

The CBC, whether on television or on radio, provides programming which is pan-Canadian. And in the future it will provide an even greater reflection of all of Canada's regions.

The CBC is the only broadcaster with distribution and production facilities right across the country. No other broadcaster has the mandate, infrastructure or motive to reach all Canadians. No other broadcaster has devoted so many resources to ensure Canadians see a reflection of themselves and the rest of the world on their airwaves.

To recap, these are the objectives we serve:

• To enhance pride in Canada;
• To act as stewards of Canada's heritage;
• To ensure access to Canadian voices and Canadian spaces.

What other institution helps to define, reflect and give form to Canadian identity, day in and day out, from coast to coast to coast?

The conclusion is clear: if CBC/Radio-Canada did not exist, we would have to invent it.

The good news is that Canadians have already made the investment in building the CBC over 60 years. We are an integral part of the fabric of Canadian culture and identity even as we work to enhance it.

Without doubt, the CBC is a primary instrument in maintaining our identity and a precious resource for every Canadian.

I now call upon Mr. Beatty to speak to you about our strategic plan.

Thank you, Guylaine.

I appreciate having the opportunity to speak to you about a strategic plan that will — in my view — properly position the CBC to serve Canadian cultural objectives well into the next millennium.

I know that I do not need to tell you of the changed environment which communications industries domestically and around the world face as the new millennium dawns — you yourselves are in the process of examining just that. However, I would like to briefly outline the changes that face the broadcast industry, and the CBC, as Canada's public broadcaster — and as Guylaine has just outlined, Canada's most important cultural instrument — in particular.

First, Canadians are changing the ways in which they consume media. We have heard much about the proliferation of choices, but interestingly Canadians spend about the same number of hours per week listening to radio or watching television as they did 10 or even 20 years ago — about 20 hours per week each respectively. It's just that the number of options they have available to them means that there is less time available for traditional or conventional services, as Canadians choose more and more to consume the media they want, when they want it and, increasingly how, they want it.

The days when Canadians could spend their 20 or so hours a week divided between two or three Canadian networks and three American ones are long gone. The proliferation of specialty services and new distribution mechanisms has seen the decline in audience share of all conventional networks in Canada. Today, Canadian conventional services together garner about 50% of the total audience share, the US conventional services capture about 20%, and domestic and American specialty services — around 30 in all — now enjoy 30% of the total audience share in Canada.

And, in addition, home subscription to the Internet increased from 13% in 1997 to 23% at the same time of year in 1998. Given the additional household monthly expenditure of $20 or so for an Internet subscription, the rate at which Canadians are subsrcibing is a remarkable achievement. Cable TV never increased its penetration by more than 5 percentage points in a year in its early growth period.

So, how is the industry changing? And why should CBC want to change with it?

International communications industries are forming into constellations of services, often anchored on a traditional network and including, distribution, entertainment and other services. Disney and Time Warner are two such examples. And Canada is following the same trend. Companies like CTV, CHUM Group and Videotron have developed beyond their core services and now have interest in several broadcast and distribution undertakings.

But CBC has not followed the same trend. Of the 60 specialty licences granted by the CRTC since 1983, only two — for Newsworld and RDI — have been obtained by CBC. Yet these are highly successful ventures. When we combine this with the ratings our Canadian programs receive when stacked up against other Canadian programs, we know that Canadians turn to the CBC for high quality Canadian programming. We simply want to be there whenever and however they want us — in the way they wish to consume media today. That is the basis of how we intend to be part of the new media environment of the year 2000 and beyond.

The plan we have put forward to the CRTC is bold and ambitious in scope: it is through the fulfilment of twelve commitments that we will achieve our covenant with Canadians.

1. First, we will provide Canadian programming of interest to all. This includes sports programming, which is a significant part of Canada's heritage, and also very much within the domain of our expertise. We will not become the broadcaster of choice for Canada's elite, offering only programming which interests only a small slice of Canadian society.

2. We will ensure a pan-Canadian reflection in more of our programming. Mount Royal and the top of the CN tower are just not high enough to fully capture the essence of this vast country. For our cultural identity to survive, Canadians must see themselves reflected on their airwaves. Accordingly, we must also increase the number of new voices that represent our cultural diversity in order to provide a complete and vibrant picture of the country.

3. We will strengthen our distinctive presence in the regions. For much of our audience across the country who do not have cable the CBC is their only source of Canadian information, Canadian reference points and entertainment. Even today, when close to 80% of Canadian households are cabled, 44% of CBC Television audiences are from household without cable, demonstrating how important the CBC is to Canadians who do not live in the larger easy to serve markets!

4. We will revitalize English Television by continuing our very successful Canadianization campaign. I can tell you that it is starting to work. This year nine out of the top ten Canadian series were shown on CBC's English Television. An important weapon in the battle for a healthy and independent Canadian culture is our ability to ensure that all Canadians — but especially our children — understand their own history and institutions.

5. We will provide Canada's premier news and information service. Indeed, our journalistic leadership and expertise are among CBC's greatest strengths. We have over 800 journalists working from coast to coast and around the world, providing news services in English and in French.

6. We will support French language and culture right across Canada. In a global communications environment increasingly dominated by the English language, this role for the CBC becomes even more imperative. For French Canadians living in minority situations the CBC acts as a lifeline for the promotion of the French language and culture.

7. We will build bridges between French and English cultures and communities by intensifying our efforts to produce cross-cultural programming such as CBC Newsworld's and RDI's jointly produced Culture Shock/Culture-choc, English Radio's C'est la Vie and Le Monde à Lanvers on French radio.

8. We will champion Canada's arts and culture. The CBC is Canada's electronic stage. Some of our brightest and most enduring Canadian stars emerged from CBC television and radio. With a renewed and revitalized mission, the CBC will continue to showcase our artists, writers, musicians and creative talent.

9. We will develop a constellation of new services to better respond to Canadians. The CBC of tomorrow must be available to all Canadians, wherever and whenever they choose to consume media. In this regard, our applications for new specialty television channels, filed last year, address very real gaps in our country's programming that need to be filled by a public broadcaster. For radio we are proposing two new services.

10. We will play a leadership role in new media and new technology. There is not a shred of doubt that the CBC belongs — indeed, will thrive — in this swiftly growing arena. Without our presence, there is a real risk of Canadian voices being submerged.

11. We will modernize our corporate culture so that it is more open to new opportunities, and resolutely turned to the future.

12. Finally, we will provide a view of Canada abroad. The closer the world draws upon us, the more important it becomes to provide a view of Canada beyond its borders. With the continued funding commitment RCI received from the Government, it is now secure in its ability to provide short-wave services around the world in seven languages. Our internet services allow Canadians around the world to keep in touch with their country and with their region.

These commitments will set the course for the CBC of tomorrow. They represent targets that are ambitious, but within our grasp.

I encourage you to consider the powerful instrument that Canada has in the CBC to ensure the vitality of its culture here in Canada and around the world. The CBC is here to serve the cultural aspirations of all Canadians: let us use it well.