M inister of Canadian Heritage Pascale St-Onge said there won’t be a “big, broad consultation around the future of CBC/Radio-Canada” as the government prepares to update the Canadian public broadcaster’s mandate.
“[Consultations have] been done many times; we have a lot of expert panels that gave great recommendations, we have other public broadcasters around the planet that we can get inspired by, see what the best practices and the best ideas [are], and this is what I’m going to be talking about with the expert committee,” said St-Onge (pictured right) to CMPA president and CEO Reynolds Mastin (pictured left) during a keynote conversation at Prime Time on Thursday (Feb. 1). “It’s really a committee that will advise me on a concrete proposition to bring forward to the community about CBC/Radio-Canada.”
St-Onge said updating CBC/Radio-Canada is a big piece of her key priorities over the next 18 months as Heritage Minister, pointing to recent discussions in the media and at the government level as indications that “there needs to be a few changes and tweaks.”
CBC/Radio-Canada president and CEO Catherine Tait appeared in front of the Heritage committee on Tuesday (Jan. 30) to discuss executive bonuses following the announcement that the pubcaster would eliminate 800 roles and implement programming budget cuts to make up a shortfall of $125 million. Tait argued to the committee that the pubcaster does not provide bonuses, but incentive pay based on performance.
“We need to think about our public broadcaster for the long-term, and we need to protect its independence, that its finance is stabilized, predictable, reliable, and that we help our public broadcaster face the media crisis we’ve all been through,” said St-Onge. “And we need to make sure it has a strong relationship with Canadians and that it’s a trusted media, an accountable media, and transparent with the highest level of governance.”
The impending updates to CBC/Radio-Canada’s mandate will run parallel with a search for its next president and CEO, with Tait set to end her mandate on Jan. 2, 2025.
St-Onge appeared at Prime Time one day after the government confirmed it would provide $100 million to Telefilm Canada over the next two years to sustain Canada’s film sector.
During the conversation, she addressed the calls for renewed funding at the Indigenous Screen Office, with the organization’s three-year funding allocation of roughly $40 million expiring on March 31. While the Minister could not confirm about the funding renewal, she said “we’re going to keep our commitment.”
“We’re extremely committed to reconciliation, and it’s not an easy road, but it’s a commitment we’re making to future generations,” she added. “Making sure Indigenous communities have the means and capacity to tell their stories is essential to doing that.”
The role of government amid the rise of artificial intelligence was also raised, with St-Onge noting that it’s a challenge for the government to move as quickly as the technology evolves.
“These platforms won’t regulate themselves,” she said. “We need to regulate and make sure it’s done in a way that we can protect people’s privacy, that we can protect intellectual property, and we can also make sure that people are well-compensated for the work that they’re doing and is being made accessible by these technologies.”
Another key priority raised by St-Onge was the need for the government to tell “the truth about who we are and what we stand for” ahead of an anticipated federal election in 2025, with the Conservative Party of Canada, led by Pierre Poilievre, currently leading in the polls.
“It’s two opposing visions of what Canada is and what it can be, and the promise of Canada; a prosperous Canada, a modern Canada that can face the challenges of climate change, changing the economy so that we find solutions to the big programs we have… making sure there’s room for everyone,” said St-Onge. “That’s what I’m going to fight for for the next 18 months.”