The Bédard Commission report on the future of Télé-Québec met with mixed reviews after it was released on March 9 – calling as it did for the educational channel to get back to its roots by focusing on programming but failing to either make a case to boost its budget or to shake off the specter of privatization.

Rather, the commission is recommending that Télé-Québec sell off some assets and divert other funds back into programming. Commission chair Claude Bédard says the new funds will lead to a revitalization of the provincial pubcaster.

In the long term, the commission argued, this would allow Télé-Québec to invest $44 million a year directly into programming, as opposed to the $33 million it has averaged for the past three years.

As well, the commission urged Télé-Québec to expand its programming to focus on areas of Quebec outside of Montreal. In another bid to bolster the coffers, the commission argued the channel should be allowed to run advertising for 12 minutes every hour, as opposed to the current eight minutes. This move may generate an additional $10 million per year. The net result, the commission’s report argues, will be a gain in employment in the film/TV production sector.

The $350,000 report was met with an enthusiastic response from the provincial producers group, APFTQ. ‘We agree with the basic vision of the working group,’ says president and director general Claire Samson.

Spokesperson Céline Pelletier adds that the recommendations are in accord with those made by the group; presented to the commission several months ago. ‘We are pleased that the commission listened to our concerns about production so carefully,’ she says.

But director Michel Poulette (Agent of Influence) charges that the Bédard report has ignored the concerns of other groups and is still quietly pushing for privatization.

‘This is indeed a way for the government to move towards privatizing Télé-Québec,’ he says. ‘This is part of their agenda. The government tried this a few years ago and there was a lot of public outcry. Now they’re simply trying to do it another way.’

He also takes a dim view of moving money out of Montreal into the regions. ‘If you have a bunch of limbs but no heart, that won’t serve Télé-Québec well. This is a way to hurt Télé-Québec, not help it.’

The report was commissioned last spring by Quebec Minister of Culture and Transportation Line Beauchamp. The commission’s mandate was broad, including reviewing the entire organization of Télé-Québec, its finances and its impact on the promotion of the identity of Quebec. Onlookers have been concerned from the outset that Jean Charest’s Liberal government might advocate privatizing Télé-Québec entirely.

Télé-Québec has long produced some of the province’s highest-profile educational and cultural programming. It had recently announced plans to scale back dramatic production, suggesting that its final miniseries would be Poulette’s Histoire de famille, the five-part historical drama about the Quiet Revolution that is slated to air in the fall.

‘These recommendations mean this will probably change,’ says Pelletier. ‘We feel Télé-Québec should stick with educational and cultural programming, but we also believe that no genre should be excluded.’

‘We feel they are moving in the correct direction,’ says Pelletier. ‘They should sell many of their studios and infrastructure and put that money directly on the screen.’

-www.telequebec.qc.ca