St-Onge faces questioning on portfolio during Senate appearance

Canadian Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge faced a barrage of questions from Senators during an appearance before the Red Chamber Wednesday. She was asked about CBC/Radio-Canada, the Online Streaming and Online News Acts, and broadcasting in the north. Clément Gignac of the Progressive Senators Group wanted to know about the recently announced layoffs at the Crown Corporation. The cuts are not fairly distributed, he alleged. “In a recent announcement, we learned that the job cuts anticipated at our public broadcaster will be the same at Radio-Canada and CBC, even though their business revenues are not the same, the number of employees is not the same, and the drop in advertising revenues at Radio-Canada is three times lower than at the CBC,” he stated in French. “Are you comfortable with the CBC president’s decision, given that your mandate letter refers to the protection and promotion of the French language across the country, including in Quebec?” St-Onge replied that she had to be careful in her response, as the corporation is at arm’s-length from the government. She held CBC management responsible for answering questions about the cutbacks. She then took up the topic of francophone rights. “Obviously, CBC/Radio-Canada plays a very important role in promoting the French language across Canada. I also acknowledge the importance of its presence in Quebec,” she said. “The corporation must comply with its mandate and mission despite the current challenges it faces amid the media crisis and its declining private revenues.” Most of the minister’s answers were in French; the quotations are from translations in Hansard. Another Quebec senator, Jean-Guy Dagenais of the Canadian Senators Group, wanted to know why the public broadcaster was saving most of its news programming for its specialty channels, CBC News Network and RDI. Subscribers must pay a fee to access those channels. “You’re right in saying that the news should be accessible to the entire population, particularly when it’s produced by our public broadcaster,” St-Onge responded. “We’re aware of the financial difficulties being encountered right now by CBC/Radio-Canada, like all of the other media outlets. That has led to a significant drop in advertising revenue and an increase in production costs. That is part of the reality, and we need to take that into account going forward.” Dagenais then asked why Pelmorex Weather Networks Television Inc., parent company of the Weather Network, is assessing subscription fees from cable companies. The minister passed the responsibility on to the regulator. “This question will have to be put to the CRTC,” she said. “Modernization of the Broadcasting Act now allows for more flexibility in adjusting the regulatory framework. I’ll leave it up to the CRTC to comment on that.” Ontario senator Andrew Cardozo of the Progressive Senators Group asked what the CBC would look like going forward. St-Onge lamented the loss of international perspective across media in Canada generally. “One of the things that I find most disappointing is all that we’ve lost in terms of international journalism, for example,” she said. “Fewer and fewer media outlets have the capacity to send journalists to different parts of the world to tell us what is happening there and to bring us the Canadian perspective on the various events that are occurring around the world.” Conservative senator Don Plett said his party had been sued by the CBC in 2019 and demanded to know how much the corporation had spent on the lawsuit. St-Onge said it was up to the broadcaster to release that information. Fellow Tory Leo Housakos raised the question of bonuses being paid to managers while CBC employees are facing layoffs. The minister reiterated that it is up to the company’s board of directors to face accountability for the move. PEI senator Percy Downe of the Canadian Senators Group pointed out that local newscasts in his home province had been cancelled by CBC, the only local channel on the island. “We were disappointed and surprised, pointing out that CBC, as a condition of their licence, promised to maintain at least seven hours of local programming per week,” he asserted in English. “Another condition of their licence is that they would not change that without approval from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, or CRTC, following a public process of consultation. None of that happened.” St-Onge suggested lodging complaints with the commission regarding loss of local programming. Housakos also asked about Google’s recent agreement with the federal government on news compensation. Is it any better than the private deals the tech giant had with individual news companies, he wondered. “The only reason agreements have been reached in recent years with certain media outlets chosen by Google or Facebook is because those companies knew that Canada was working on new legislation to regulate them,” the minister replied. “They knew that Canada was going to create a more equitable system.” Independent Senators Group member Paula Simons wanted to know how much of the $100 million in the Google deal was new money and how much was a holdover from the private agreements. St-Onge told the Alberta senator she could not answer as the private figures were not available to her. Independent senator Donna Dasko wondered how negotiations between Google and media organizations would take place. The minister said a collective approach would be used. The Yukon’s Pat Duncan, another independent senator, asked about broadcasters in Indigenous languages who are having difficulties with equipment upgrades. Any funding bundles are limited to programming, she said. The minister vowed to look into the matter. “Indeed, our government is deeply committed not only to reconciliation, but to the collaborative work that is necessary to ensure the success of community initiatives,” she stated. “I’ll examine the ways in which the Department of Canadian Heritage can better support Indigenous community radio stations across Canada. Indigenous language revitalization and cultural transmission to future generations are absolutely essential.” While the minister was fielding questions in the Senate, her boss was in the House of Commons defending the CBC. Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet continued his attack on the cutbacks. He wants corporation president Catherine Tait to explain herself and her organization to MPs. “More people in Canada tune in to Radio-Canada than the CBC. Radio-Canada generates more advertising revenue in Canada than the CBC,” he asserted. “In fact, French-language Radio-Canada subsidizes CBC's English-language services. Nevertheless, Ms. Tait is calling on French-language Radio-Canada to absorb half the cuts she is demanding, at the expense of French and at the expense of the regions.” “CBC/Radio-Canada has an important mandate in this area,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau replied. “We are concerned about the situation confronting all of our media outlets these days, what with digitization, web giants and the Conservatives' attacks on the media, especially on CBC/Radio-Canada. We will always be here to stand up for journalism as an essential pillar of our democracy.” –Reporting by Paul Park at ppark@thewirereport.ca and editing by Jenna Cocullo at jcocullo@thewirereport.ca

St-Onge faces questioning on portfolio during Senate appearance

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St-Onge faces questioning on portfolio during Senate appearance

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