Is the governance and financing reform of Radio-Canada envisaged by the Minister of Heritage, Pascale St-Onge, too timid and too limited? Will the committee of experts that she has mandated to advise her be able to look at the Canadian audiovisual forest, rather than being exclusively interested in the imperial tree that sits in front and shades everything else? We should perhaps be worried about this now as the federal government and the management of the state corporation seem primarily driven by the idea of poisoning the possible dismantling of CBC promised by the leader of the Party. Conservative of Canada, Pierre Poilievre.
Obviously, if this prospect were to come true, it would be catastrophic for the future of Canadian audiovisual, all languages combined. Minister St-Onge, very committed to the defense and promotion of the country’s cultural and media institutions, has already passed two bills to better protect them. Now that she is aiming to update the more specific role and structure of the Société Radio-Canada, she should perhaps take inspiration from the reform put in place by her French counterpart, Minister of Culture Rachida Dati, whose bill will be debated in the National Assembly in the coming days.
The changes that the French minister wishes to make are formulated using objectives consistent with those mentioned for Radio-Canada and in fact use the same language: modernization, governance, financing, adaptation to digital competition. With one difference, but it is major and fundamental: the French government embraces in its reform project the entire public audiovisual sector and each of its institutions. Not just France Télévisions, its flagship. If the bill presented by Rachida Dati takes all the steps towards state sanction, the public companies in the audiovisual sector will first be brought together in a holding company, before being merged at the beginning of 2026 at the latest.
What would the Government of Canada gain by bringing together 100% state-owned audiovisual companies under a single authority? First, better definition and coordination of the strategic orientations of each, with the aim of ensuring their coherence and complementarity. In this context, the synergy effect could constitute a more biting response to digital invaders. Then, the creation of an “agency” independent of the government, whose virtues are almost elevated to the rank of mantra by the government of Quebec, would certainly have an impact on the depoliticization of large media institutions, while improving cultural and operational performance. of their components.
Discoverability is one thing, but a more abundant offer of major products facilitated by cooperation is another that can increase recognition of Canadian creations and admiration for them internationally.
Compared to linguistic duality, which represents an essential pillar of each federal institution, it could be better served simply by assigning specific missions and distributing resources accordingly, while encouraging ad hoc alliances for the realization of projects. majors, either in French or in English. But above all, it is important to rid the landscape of an impression of domination by one over the other in order to team up more and reach the major digital leagues more often. Although France only relies on a single national language, it is perhaps the international influence of branded content that Rachida Dati is referring to when she evokes the concept of audiovisual sovereignty.
You should know that the French bill concerns considerations which go well beyond the governance, financing and cohesion of public broadcasting. In addition to the objective of audiovisual sovereignty, the announced reform plans to further reduce France Télévisions’ capacity to solicit the advertising market to meet its financing needs, particularly on digital media.
In return, the advertising volume authorized for private channels would be increased, and the erosion of specialized channels would be partially countered by the relaxation of financing rules. There are probably no major miracles to hope for in this regard, but we can still consider these changes as a step in the right direction. It is essential that the private-public dynamic, which is at the heart of the Canadian audiovisual system and which has historically been its strength, benefits from a path to a new era.
At the same time, the prospect of reform of Canadian public broadcasting seems shudderingly pale by being limited, for the moment at least, to the Société Radio-Canada alone. However, it stems from objectives similar to those of France, namely adaptation to digital competition, modernization of governance and financing. A priori, Canada would have a strong advantage in developing effective mechanisms for governance, cohesion and synergy between the services of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Telefilm Canada, the Canadian Television Fund, the National Film Board and the TV5 Québec Canada to increase its overall efficiency as well as its competitive capacity in the digital world.
Oh ! Before anyone suspects me of willful omission, I must say that partisan politics is also involved in the reform of public broadcasting in France. And the spectrum of options is quite wide between left and right, ranging from complete privatization to a form of status quo. This is why the freedom from political interests should also be written in black and white in any project to reform public institutions. In this sense, the idea of an independent authority overseeing public audiovisual services should be considered…. particularly for its ability to slow down the scuttling of a major strategic service that had become a malicious political target.