This week, in a parliamentary committee in Ottawa, the Bloc MP Martin Champoux showed himself perplexed by the latest project of the big boss of CBC/Radio-Canada, Catherine Tait, the one aimed at a “brotherhood” between the English-speaking and French-speaking networks of the public broadcaster in order to better compete with large foreign digital platforms.
Radio-Canada and CBC already share the same buildings, the same equipment and the same centralized administration at the head office in Ottawa, noted Mr. Champoux. “Where are you going to make this connection? » he asked Mme Tait. “All that remains to be brought together is the programming and the news. »
Mme Tait explained that the investments required for the digital shift would be too great for the two networks to have the luxury of working in isolation. Radio-Canada and CBC must work together to cushion the financial shock. Mme Tait insisted that the move would not compromise the editorial independence of Radio-Canada. “I swear to you that the strength of Radio-Canada and the importance of Radio-Canada for the French fact and the French language remain at the heart of all our reflections,” she promised.
However, the mandate of Mme Tait ends in just a few months. The Minister of Canadian Heritage, Pascale St-Onge, has already started the process to appoint the next CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada. The new boss will likely take the reins a few months before the next federal election.
Would a rapprochement between the English-speaking and French-speaking networks also aim to frustrate any attempt to split them, as Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre promises to do? The latter pledged to “defund” CBC while protecting Radio-Canada. But the bill for such an exercise could be high, and the operating costs of a French-speaking network would skyrocket in the absence of an English-speaking counterpart with which it could share investments. “ [Les conservateurs] talk about [couper] a billion dollars; this billion is not only shared by CBC/Radio-Canada outside Quebec. It’s shared in Quebec too,” said M.me Was in parliamentary committee. “A billion dollars is more than half our budget. If we remove it, it will be a disaster for French-speaking media outside Quebec, that’s for sure. »
Alberta MP and Conservative heritage critic Rachael Thomas did not seem aware of her own promise when a Radio-Canada journalist asked her if the French-language network should remain open. She remained silent for 18 seconds, until journalist Laurence Martin reminded her, in English, that her boss had already spoken out on this. “I support my leader,” she limited herself to saying. But her hesitation spoke volumes about her lack of preparation in a matter which nevertheless fell directly under her control. Mr. Poilievre’s promise to eliminate CBC without affecting Radio-Canada seems just as improvised.
However, the search for a successor to Mme Tait is made all the more complicated as the future of the public broadcaster seems mortgaged. The high probability that the next CEO will find himself facing a conservative government in a few months certainly does not help Mr.me St-Onge in its recruitment of a candidate worthy of this position which is so sensitive in the Canadian media and cultural worlds.
Tradition dictates that the next head of CBC/Radio-Canada will be a francophone. The current head of transformation and senior vice-president, people and culture, of CBC/Radio-Canada, Marco Dubé, considered the heir apparent to Mr.me Tait, would appear to be in the running to succeed him. This Franco-Ontarian and former journalist is already leading the merger project which is at the heart of the digital transformation of the public broadcaster. But the last big bosses of CBC/Radio-Canada almost all came from outside the Crown corporation. Mr. Dubé remains a member of the management team of Mme Tait, whose presidency is far from having impressed observers in Ottawa.
Peter Kent, a former Conservative minister under Stephen Harper, went his own way this week by recommending former TFO Media Group chief Glenn O’Farrell, who revitalized the Franco-Ontarian public broadcaster. Mr. O’Farrell “has a clever plan to save [CBC/Radio-Canada]restore public confidence in society and remove those who would destroy it,” Mr. Kent said on X.
Anglophone by birth and native of the municipality of Saint-Malachie, in Chaudière-Appalaches, Mr. O’Farrell chaired the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, the country’s private media lobby, before taking the reins of TFO in 2010. He also served on the governing council of the Université de l’Ontario français and served as an advisor on francophone economic development to the Ontario Minister of Francophone Affairs, Caroline Mulroney.
In short, he would be a perfect candidate to succeed Mme Tait. And the position seems to interest him. In February, he presented his vision for the future of CBC/Radio-Canada in an opinion article published in the Toronto Star. “The time has come to change the operating model of CBC/Radio-Canada, while recognizing the fundamental differences between the English and French services and their markets,” he wrote at the time. Public media are a public good. They must be reinvented for the benefit of our democracy. »
Based in Montreal, Konrad Yakabuski is a columnist for Globe and Mail.