Speeches and Interviews

September 26, 2002

In A 500-Channel Universe, Is There Any Place For Public Broadcasting?

Carole Taylor at the Canadian Club of Calgary

I am so pleased to join you today in Calgary, talking about broadcasting, my first career, here at the Canadian Club;, a particularly appropriate setting since much of what I have to say today is intertwined with our idea of who we are as Canadians.

And so the question is the CBC/Radio-Canada: Why Bother? Do we need public broadcasting any longer in Canada?

For the next while, I am going to ask you to lift your eyes to the BIG question.

Forget about whether or not you hate some announcer's tie or voice. Forget about the personalities you loved who have left the CBC or those you hate who have stayed.

I am going to ask you to consider the big policy issue of whether or not a country such as Canada should have -- should invest in -- a public broadcasting system.

And what better time to ask this provocative question than right now, as we celebrate our 50th anniversary of television broadcasting in this country.

Depuis 50 ans, CBC/Radio-Canada a informé et amuse les Canadiens, analyze les nouvelles et, bien sur, nous avons présenté et célébré nos artistes, musicians, écrivains et nos athlètes. Je suis très fière de notre histoire.

We indeed have a proud history, but can we continue to be relevant and needed in the next fifty years? Do we have a role to play in Canada's future?

First, 3 recent events that have dramatically brought this question into focus for me.

Sept 11: An enormous tragedy that touched so many of us, in so many ways: sorrow, fear, anxiety, anger. Many assumed because this event happened in America, albeit with profound international repercussions, that Canadians would turn en masse to CNN for coverage. WRONG. On Sept. 11, across all of CBC's media lines, our ratings went through the roof.

The reach for English television, French television, CBC Newsworld and RDI combined was 16 million people, while the reach for Radio One, Radio Two, la Première Chaîne and La Chaîne culturelle combined was another 4 million.

CANADIANS TUNED TO CBC/RADIO-CANADA.

(I might also add not only Canadians. Radio Canada International's coverage was heard on every continent, English Television's coverage was carried by the USA Cable network to 80 million homes throughout the United States and Radio-Canada's signal reached international audiences via "TV5 Monde".)

But the fact is that CANADIANS across this wonderful country supported CBC/Radio-Canada. It was as if we needed to see and understand this international tragedy: through Canadian eyes, superimposed on Canadian values, commented on by our Prime Minister, and analyzed by our experts and journalists.

We wanted to know: what it meant to us, to our immigration policy, to our border security, to our planes, to Parliament Hill, to our Legislative Buildings.

CBC preempted all programs, across the board. We dropped all commercials. We sent our reporters, our cameramen, our sound technicians to capture the story. Our on-air people worked long, long shifts, where it was hard sometimes to even get a break, to fill a need, to bring the story to you and Canadians responded, with overwhelming support.

As a footnote, last week's coverage on Sept. 11th, reached another high note for journalism in this country.

The 2nd recent event that I found to be provocative, happened at the Davos World Economic Forum that was held this winter in New York.

This economic conference is hailed as an unparalleled opportunity for business, political and religious leaders from around the world to discuss global directions. Our Prime Minister was there, former Presidents, CEOs, journalists, leaders from almost every major country and region in the world.

While there were hundreds of workshops covering every conceivable topic, everywhere I went there was a strong undercurrent of concern about American dominance, American power.

If the topic was global security, the discussion eventually turned to a concern about America as the International police force.

If the topic was world-wide economic trends, the discussion moved to the power of American business.

And if the topic was Media, the concern was about the absolute world dominance of American broadcasting. The point being that much of the world is now seeing international events through American eyes. If I am sitting in Europe, hearing about an earthquake or relief program in South America, CNN tells me about it. When I was traveling in Asia on business, CNN told me about the Asian flu. And on Sept. 11, CNN told the world that story.

CNN is writing history.

In fact, in Australia, the public broadcasting system simply preempted its programming and ran American pool footage and the Australian politician who came to visit me and look at our public broadcasting system, asked why we hadn't done the same!

THIS IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR CANADA. IT IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR CANADA TO ACCEPT WITHOUT COMMENT ANOTHER COUNTRY'S NEWS REPORTING TO ACCEPT WITHOUT COMMENT ANOTHER COUNTRY'S VERSION OF HISTORY-BEING-MADE!

It is imperative that, if we, as a country, are changing policies or directions as a result of Sept 11th, that we do our own thinking and analysis, and fully understand the issues before us because, they are fundamental to our nationhood.

Now, at this point, before anyone misunderstands what I am trying to say, let me emphatically state the I am NOT anti-American in any bone of my body....in fact, some of my best friends are American.

Truth be told: my son lives in New York and writes for an American financial magazine. My daughter is in 4th year pre-med at UCLA in Los Angeles (in fact, she drives ambulances in that city), and I have been a seasons ticket holder to the Seattle Seahawks for 25 years. And like you, I love West Wing and ER and Friends.

But, you don't have to be Anti-American to be passionately, actively, pro-Canadian, which I am.

Which brings me to the third recent event that has made me think more closely about what it means to be Canadian: the Olympics.

What pride and joy we all took from the efforts and successes of our young people doing their best in the name of sport, for their country.

Think of the response to our two final gold medals in hockey! More than 6 million Canadians watched our women take the gold, almost 9 million the men, and by the medals presentation, 10.5 million people were tuned in to CBC/Radio-Canada, celebrating in every region of the country.

In Vancouver, the streets were jammed with honking cars and flag waving fans for HOURS after the game ended. I know, I live downtown!

I had no idea there were so many Canadian flags in the whole country, and yet, there they were filling Robson St and Georgia with colour and pride. I must confess, I hung my flag from our roof terrace in celebration, too.

And once again, CBC was proud to be on the frontlines, bringing communities across the country, small towns and big cities, just spectacular, CANADIAN coverage of this International event.

I am so proud of the job our people did.

We covered MORE events, covered more of them LIVE than the wealthy network to the south, we preempted our programming schedule in a way that a private network could never afford...and...and...we did it while featuring our own Canadian athletes.

And what was the result? The largest recorded audience of any program, ever, in Canada: more than 10 million people.

So there you are: three quite different events, provoking me, a baby-boomer, to think about Canada in ways that I hadn't confronted before in my lifetime.

Voilà donc, trios événements très différents, qui m'ont obligée, moi qui suis de la generation des 'baby-boomers' à penser au Canada sous des aspects que, dans toute ma vie, je n'avais encore jamais envisagés.

Que veut dire « être Canadien? » What does it mean to be Canadian?

How will we protect and nurture our values in a time of intense global pressures? How do issues of sovereignty and security interact? Are the arts important? Is culture the heart and soul of a nation? Do we care whether or not Calgary has its own philharmonic? Is the Royal Winnipeg Ballet worth supporting as we did by presenting "Dracula", or are Canadians content to see some other country's dancers perform on one of their 500 channel choices?

And how, how does the CBC fit into any nation-building exercise? Or not?

I have heard, as you have, those voices suggesting the CBC be sold, suggesting, with hundreds of choices, there is no longer a need for the public broadcaster.

Those who believe the question is only about QUANTITY have missed the evolution of the public broadcasting debate.

It is, instead a question of QUALITY. It is about producing and presenting programming that you can't get anywhere else, or produced in a way that others either can't or won't.

And if anyone thinks that, were the CBC to disappear tomorrow, some private network would step forward and fill in the gaps, they wouldn't... they couldn't.

Not when every time you present a Canadian show, you lose money. And every time you air an American show, you make money. (It costs about $1,000,000 to produce a Canadian show, but only $100,000 to buy simulcast rights for a popular American show.)

And please don't think that a private network would pre-empt their schedule the way we do for hockey play-offs. They wouldn't. Not if it meant pulling ER out of their simulcast schedule.

Nor would they spend $25 million dollars on Canada: A People's History, a documentation of our history that was seen, at least in part, by half of our population and is now being used by educators across the nation.

Personally, I don't believe we have ever had a time where public broadcasting mattered more to our country.

Plus que jamais, on a besoin de la radiodiffusion publique au Canada. Pour soutenir la culture, pour protéger nos idées et nos valeurs et pour célébrer notre identité.

As an aside, it's interesting, isn't it, those saying Canada doesn't need a CBC even though England feels it needs and benefits from a BBC, Australia with ABC, France, Belgium, Italy, Japan, Switzerland, just to name a few, ALL have public broadcasting systems, even the United States with PBS.

But, somehow, Canada, with this enormous power and influence on our very border, somehow doesn't need to worry about having an INDEPENDENT public broadcaster. It doesn't make sense.

So, if you will indulge me and allow me to use artistic licence, and assume just for a moment that you agree with me, that everyone in this room is an enthusiastic supporter of the idea of Canadian public broadcasting. Then lets tackle the next question: How can we do it better? Because in my mind, this is critical to our survival.

There is no question that CBC/Radio-Canada has not always been perfect, but the one core thought that I want you to leave here today BELIEVING is:

This is a new CBC There is new leadership at the helm (Robert Rabinovitch in management and me as Chair). There is an absolute acknowledgement that we are using "taxpayer" dollars, and we must earn them every day. That we are doing programming that no one else is, in a way that no one else can. And finally, we are an essential part of Canada's future.

So, how are we changing?

We have transformed English Television programming, added more than 750 hours of non-violent programming for children and youth, much of it commercial-free, added themed evenings and exciting new drama, and Canadianized our primetime schedule (90% is now Canadian content). As well, we have cut the ads on our news in half.

In the process we are reconnecting with Canadians – 2/3 of you are now watching English Television each week.

We have also revamped a considerable portion of the French Television programming schedule and have reinforced its role as a cultural lifeline for Francophones and Francophiles across the country.

And even as audience figures are soaring, our Radio networks are re-designing and expanding their services. The goal is to build on our successes to reach even more Canadians with even higher quality content.

As well, across all our media lines we have boosted regional presence and reflection so that over half of our Canadian programming now has a regional connection.

We've opened 19 new News bureaus across the country and also launched new drama and entertainment produced across Canada, dramas like Tom Stone from right here in Calgary or Random Passage out of Newfoundland.

This programming is evidence of the value of having a broadcaster that can innovate and take risks that no one else dare.

As we begin our next fifty years, then, CBC/Radio-Canada has emerged as a true window on Canada. But it is also, and I want to emphasize this, it is also better managed.

Under the leadership of Robert Rabinovitch, we've been making changes to the way we run our business.

A good example of this is the creation of a Real Estate Division of CBC/Radio-Canada to manage our more than 5 million square feet of real estate. We asked ourselves, why not sell off or lease those properties we don't need, and invest that money in programming?

Already we have finalized arrangements at two of our Broadcasting Centres that will yield $6 million a year... precious dollars for production.

Another excellent example of our new management approach is our pursuit of strategic partnerships. Partnerships that have allowed us to launch three new specialty services: ARTV, Country Canada, and the Documentary Channel. Partnerships that are helping us to generate new revenue, produce more Canadian content and reach new audiences.

WE ARE A DIFFERENT CBC FROM THE ONE YOU KNEW 10 YEARS AGO.

We are full of life, full of enthusiasm, bursting with ideas and possibilities.

The one absolute underlying everything we do is our belief in the importance of our mission: Canadian Public Broadcasting.

We are supported by every one of you here today, by Canadians across the country, to fulfill our mandate.

We are an independent voice, your independent voice. Surely there is a place up there on that big satellite in the sky for Canada, our values, our ideas, our talent.

But we are going to have to fight for our place; no one is going to do it for us. Not the Americans with their hundreds of channels. Not the BBC. Not the Australians. Not even, dare I say it, the Privates.

And so we return to my initial question: In a world of almost unlimited quantity of broadcast choices, is there room or a need for one that is an independent voice, fiercely Canadian, a public broadcaster in the purest sense of the term?

And in the end, the answer is not mine to give. I can't promise you success – success in saving and growing and enriching public broadcasting in this country. I can only promise you effort.

To me, the future of public broadcasting is completely intertwined with the feelings we have toward Canada.

How strongly do we feel our sense of nation? How passionately do we want to celebrate our talent, trumpet our values, preserve our differences?

In the end, it is up to you, each one of you here today, your families, your children.

And so the question is yours: Canadian Public Broadcasting...is it worth the bother?