Speeches and Interviews

October 23, 2003

Speaking Notes for Carole Taylor and Robert Rabinovitch to the Senate Committee on Transport and Communications

Promoting Alternatives in Canadian Journalism

Speaking Notes for Carole Taylor, O.C., Chair, and Robert Rabinovitch, President and CEO to the Senate Committee on Transport and Communications, Ottawa

[Madame Taylor]

Honourable Senators,

It is our pleasure to speak before you on such an important subject, one that touches our lives both at a professional and personal level.

You have heard here, and you have seen for yourselves that Canada's media industries have been going through a rapid transformation, in technology, in ownership, and in convergence.

Private broadcasters say they need to pursue convergence in order to remain strong. But the Canadian industry is more than just the privates. And if indeed we want a strong industry, then the whole industry needs to be strong - both private and public.

Why is this important? Because a healthy media depends on multiple voices, different opinions. It's one thing people in this country have always been proud of about their media. When Canadians have access to the widest range of stories and issues, covered from different points of view, they can judge for themselves what is important to them. They can decide what they think about the issues that affect their lives. Without a balance of multiple viewpoints - from both public and private institutions - Canadians lose confidence in what they are told; they lose faith in their institutions.

As a former journalist I am very proud of the consistently high quality of journalism CBC/Radio-Canada provides to Canadians. And I am reminded almost every day of just how important that journalism is.

Think about the past year: the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, SARS, this summer's massive power failure, mad cow disease, forest fires in British Columbia, and the West Nile virus. More than ever, Canadians need the best sources for news that they can get….

…healthy, and diverse news sources that include BOTH public and private broadcasters.

We don't always do the same stories; we don't do them the same way. That is how it should be. It's that balance between public and private broadcasters, and the choices we offer, that has made the Canadian media industry, particularly the news industry, one of the most respected in the world. But I'm afraid we've been taking that balance a bit for granted.

Almost 15 years of cuts to public broadcasting have taken their toll, especially in the regions. And the cuts haven't stopped. In the spring, $50 million over two years was cut from the Canadian Television Fund, one week before CBC finalized its budget for the year. Last month, another $10 million cut to CBC/Radio-Canada was confirmed. This death by a thousand cuts cannot continue…not if we are to do the job Canadians expect us to do.

Let me tell you what's at stake. In CBC/Radio-Canada, Canadians have a news and information source that is accountable to them - through Parliament, a Board of Directors, two Ombudsmen, and through a rigorous set of journalistic standards and practices. Canadians have a news source unfettered by commercial and ownership pressures, and arms-length from the government. What this means is that Canadians know that they can trust CBC/Radio-Canada to cover the events that are important to them, in a way that meets the highest standards of excellence and integrity.

CBC/Radio-Canada is not only Canada's largest news organisation; it's also the only one with a presence throughout the entire country in both official languages…and 8 Aboriginal languages as well. The maps we've distributed will help give you an idea of our presence. CBC English Radio has reporters in 48 communities including 6 bureaus in the North; French Radio has reporters in 33 communities; English Television and French Television have reporters in 33 and 40 communities respectively across the country.

No other Canadian broadcaster has that many news bureaus and journalists outside major cities; places like Kelowna, British Columbia, just recently devastated by major forest fires, Saguenay, Quebec, where one of Canada's leading employers Alcan is making a major investment; Brandon, Manitoba, where continuing drought is threatening people's livelihoods; and Goose Bay where CBC/Radio-Canada brought national awareness to the plight of native communities.

This is what Canadians tell us is important to them: It's their community, their region. I am proud to tell you that fully half of our Canadian programming, across all of CBC/Radio-Canada services, has a regional connection. Roughly 40% of our total operating budget is spent in the regions or in support of regional activities, and in the case of radio, we're spending over 60% in the regions in both official languages. That's 2,000 hours per week of programming.

We also bring the world to Canada through Canadian eyes. CBC/Radio-Canada foreign correspondents operate out of New York, Washington, and Rio de Janeiro covering the Americas, in London, Paris and Moscow covering Europe, in Dakar, covering Africa; and in Jerusalem, Cairo, Amman, Bangkok and Beijing covering the Far and Middle East.

Twelve foreign bureaus. No other Canadian broadcaster dedicates as many resources or has as many journalists on the ground as CBC/Radio-Canada. I can't over-emphasize how important this is. I believe we simply cannot rely on other country's news reports for the coverage that Canadians demand whether it's in Iraq or New York. When CBC-trained journalists are covering important international events, Canadians know they'll get a Canadian perspective and a standard they can trust.

CBC commits these important journalistic resources because that's our job; to be an independent source for news and information… to provide a place for discussion and analysis…a place to share ideas.

In my opinion: That place MUST be independent, with no other political or financial or personal agenda. It MUST be public broadcasting..

We can give News and current affairs pride of place on our schedules. Our national television services showcase news and information programs in prime time, including both the National and Le Téléjournal offered at 10:00PM each day. That's in large part thanks to Canadian taxpayers. Access to Parliamentary appropriations means our television schedules are not driven by American programming. Radio 1 and La première chaîne are solely supported by taxpayers and therefore can concentrate on news and information services. Public funding helps to shelter us from some of the pressures facing other media.

What it means is that when important national events occur, CBC/Radio-Canada can pre-empt regular programming schedules to offer live, uninterrupted coverage to all Canadians. We did it for the July 2002 visit of Pope John Paul II at World Youth Day. We did it for the visit of the Queen. That focus on news and information means that Canadians turn to CBC for coverage and analysis of major Canadian events.

Today, more than four-in-five Canadians believe that news on CBC's/Radio-Canada's French and English television networks can be trusted and is comprehensive. When Canadians were asked which English television network provided the best Canadian perspective on the war in Iraq, twice as many named CBC/Radio-Canada over any other broadcaster.

Whatever happens to Canada's media industries, Canadians know they can tune in to CBC/Radio-Canada for independent Canadian views, and uniquely Canadian stories - many of which they won't hear anywhere else. In a 500 channel universe, that's what makes public broadcasting more important than ever.

[Mr. Rabinovitch]

Members of this Committee have expressed concern about the increasing concentration of media ownership in Canada. We believe these recent changes to the Canadian media landscape are another compelling reason for maintaining a strong and vibrant national public broadcaster. High-quality journalism costs money and doesn't often garner large enough audiences and advertising revenues to make a compelling business case for profit seeking, bottom line-oriented media organizations. That's the reality of the news industry.

Here is a concrete example: While the Quebecor Media various holdings were covering at length the reality show Star Académie broadcast on its flagship television network TVA, CBC/Radio-Canada was busy covering the war in Iraq. TVA had one correspondent in Iraq. We placed approximately 40 people throughout the region … in Amman, Kuwait City, Qatar, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Northern Iraq, Turkey, Cairo, and of course, London, Washington, Paris, and Baghdad. The objective: to give a distinctive Canadian interpretation to events as they unfold. We could not, should not as a country rely for our information on US networks or even the BBC. We were as a country active non-participants in this war. Canadians merited a distinctive interpretation of events.

Let there be no misunderstanding: I do not blame the private broadcasters in any way for this. Star Académie might just be Canada's first true success story in convergence and they should be congratulated for succeeding where many others have failed. But this unique conjecture of events showed us how the private sector is confronted with conflicting interests. It also gave us a true sense of how tremendous the promotional force of such vast cross-media holdings can be. Every Francophone in Quebec must have heard of Star Académie, which was watched by as many as half of the province's entire population.

One thing is clear, the sweeping changes to the media landscape are forcing us to re-examine the CBC's/Radio-Canada's role in Canada's broadcasting system, to look for ways to strengthen the services we provide.

For example, many of our foreign correspondents now file in French and English; others for radio and television. This means we can expand our coverage by deploying more correspondents to more locations around the globe. As I noted, during the war in Iraq this year we were able to put 40 people throughout the region. This boosted our ability to offer Canadians a broader range of stories and context during the conflict. That is also a convergence success story.

The Government has recognised our work by providing the CBC/Radio-Canada with additional funding for each of the last three years. These additional resources went directly into programming and, together with our own internal savings, allowed us to improve the quality and quantity of our journalism, and remove or reduce commercials from important sections of our programming. Given the success of these initiatives, we had hoped that this year, $60 million would be made part of our permanent budget. It was not.

Some have suggested the CBC/Radio-Canada funding model should be changed, and that it should adopt the PBS donor-funded model of public broadcasting. In fact, PBS gets considerable funding from U.S. federal, state and local governments. And in fact raises less than a third of its budget from public solicitations. With about one-tenth the population of the United States, Canada simply doesn't have enough people to support a donor-funded model like that of PBS. And if it did? Remember PBS has one news program. One. In only one language. That's simply not good enough for Canada.

What CBC/Radio-Canada needs now is increased and stable multi-year funding. Without it, it is difficult to plan and develop distinct programming and reliable news and current affairs. We believe a five-year funding cycle would ensure support for programs during the several years it takes to go from idea to broadcast. We have as Mme Taylor noted reporters in almost every corner of Canada. Even with our permanently constrained resources we have in the last two years opened more than 20 new news bureaus and this year we are completing La Chaîne culturelle by adding 18 new frequencies.

We would like to do more for Canadians. Properly funded, we believe the CBC/Radio-Canada will continue to raise the bar on journalism in Canada, and help maintain a vibrant Canadian journalism industry.

We would also like to improve the levels of our local and regional programming. We believe that reflecting the rich variety of our communities is an essential role for the public broadcaster. It's also what Canadians want us to do. This will require a reinvestment in public broadcasting.

In its recent report on Canadian broadcasting, the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage recognized that CBC/Radio-Canada required increased funding for fulfilling its mandate and proposed that we provide Parliament with a strategic plan and associated costs to enable this. We completely endorse the recommendation to provide a costed strategic plan on how to enhance regional and local programming. As such we would create a new " Contract with Canadians" - one that will spell out precisely what Canadians can expect in regional and local programming from their public broadcaster - and what it will cost them.

Private media is changing, so is the CBC/Radio-Canada. We believe that along with a healthy and competitive private media, the CBC/Radio-Canada ensures Canadians have rich choices in news and information reporting. Those choices cannot be taken for granted.

Thank you again for this opportunity to speak to you. We welcome your questions and comments.