Time for a national conversation about public broadcaster: CBC

The head of the CBC says it is time to have a “national conversation” about the public broadcaster’s future role.

Hubert Lacroix told the Canadian Club of Montreal on Monday that a nationwide discussion needs to take place and he laid out some of the issues that need to be addressed and who should be heard from.

One of CBC’s Quebec-based unions has suggested a parliamentary commission. Lacroix didn’t comment on that idea, but told reporters after his remarks that he didn’t want a report that would find itself stuck on a shelf at the end of the day.

The broadcaster will allow Canadians to have their say through an online consultation process launched by CBC on Monday. But Lacroix believes other players need to get involved in the conversation too, including other companies governed by the Broadcasting Act such as telephone and Internet providers.

Lacroix said the consultation should include the broadcaster’s own employees. Some of its prominent personalites in Quebec have come forward in recent days to express their own concerns.

“I think everyone is entitled to their opinion,” Lacroix told reporters. “I will never gag someone or prevent a Radio-Canada employee from having an opinion, whether it conforms to or is different from mine.”

Lacroix said the broadcaster will have to revisit its mandate — spelled out in the Broadcasting Act — which was changed last in 1991.

He said that since then, the “media ecosystem” has changed dramatically while there has been a marked discrepancy between level of service it is obliged to provided versus the funding it gets from the federal government.

Lacroix says it will mean some tough choices and he gave some examples: Should CBC stop over-the-air distribution of television? Should CBC get out of local news in the far-flung regions or be the last organization to keep reporting local news in those areas? Should CBC reduce its real estate holdings?

Lacroix says there are plenty of possibilities and none are simple, but one thing is certain.

“If we all believe in public broadcasting, then we need to support it, adjust its mandate to reflect the complexities of the current media environment, and to give it the resources it needs to fulfil that mandate,” Lacroix said.

The CBC/Radio-Canada president and CEO says it’s up to Canadians to decide whether they believe in the public broadcaster and to what extent they are willing to support and invest to allow it to carry out its mandate.

This year, Canadians will pay on average $29 a year for CBC and it’s French-language counterpart.

Services are directly linked to funding, Lacroix said.

“In a nutshell, when we look at the 18 major Western countries, Canada ranks 16th in terms of per-capita public funding, just ahead of New Zealand and the United States,” Lacroix said.

Lacroix says his organization has been hit with budget cuts over several years in an era when the “globalization and fragmentation” of the media environment has made uniqueness of the Canadian programming more relevant than ever.

Denis Bolduc of the Canadian Union of Public Employees Quebec branch says he was disappointed with the tone of Lacroix’s speech.

“He asked a series of questions about the mandate of CBC but I would have liked to hear him defend the corporation and say ‘I’m going to fight so that the CBC has adequate funding, not funding that changes from year to year’,” said Bolduc, whose membership includes Radio-Canada technicians and office workers.

Alex Levasseur, the president of the Radio-Canada’s main union, says Lacroix’s message was long overdue: that the current financial situation cannot continue.

Levasseur said he hoped politicians will also listen to the concerns of Canadians.

“In a little over 15 months, there will be elections,” Levasseur said. “I think they will have an interest in listening to what Canadians have to say because it’s their constituents.”

The CBC announced in April it was slashing 657 full-time positions over two years and will no longer pursue broadcast rights to professional sports as it grappled with a budget shortfall.

Lacroix noted the broadcaster has also had to manage $390 million in financial pressures since 2009.

Since he took over the top post, Lacroix said he’s had to announce three rounds of staff cuts for a total of 2,107 jobs.

The organization plans to release its next five-year strategic plan this summer and wants to consult with the public before mapping out what it hopes to accomplish by 2020.