Latest news with #PascaleSt-Onge
Edmonton Journal
3 days ago
- Business
- Edmonton Journal
Heritage officials asked if CBC and Radio-Canada should be split, internal document shows
OTTAWA — As the federal Liberal government publicly rejected the idea of splitting CBC and Radio-Canada, Canadian Heritage officials pondered whether it was worth exploring, a newly released document shows. Article content The controversial question was raised when officials prepared a set of worksheets for members of an advisory committee appointed by the former minister to provide input on the future of the public broadcaster. Article content Article content Article content The document, released to National Post under federal access-to-information legislation, contains around 40 preliminary 'discussion questions' that were drafted by officials to 'serve as a point of departure for developing these worksheets,' which centred around the themes of CBC/ Radio-Canada's funding, mandate, and governance. Article content Article content 'Is there a case for considering a structural separation between CBC and Radio-Canada (e.g., with distinct funding, boards and leaders, etc.)? Why or why not? What would be the benefit and drawbacks of such a model,' officials wrote in the undated document, prepared between December 2023 and May 2024 for Pascale St-Onge, the former minister of Canadian Heritage, who did not seek re-election. Article content Article content In a statement, a department spokeswoman did not directly say whether that issue was ultimately proposed or why officials raised it, but said the former minister met with the advisory committee to discuss 'a range of questions' dealing with the public broadcaster, from its funding to transparency and programming. Article content Those meetings informed a set of reforms the former minister proposed back in February, where she did raise the need to better emphasize the separation between CBC and Radio-Canada, at least editorially. Article content Other 'potential questions' included how often the corporation's mandate should be reviewed, whether 'public-value tests' were necessary to assess the impact of new initiatives over concerns about competing for audiences, and how timely it was to still have a 'single national public broadcaster,' versus a more decentralized model. Article content The current CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada, Marie-Philippe Bouchard sat on the advisory panel before she was appointed to her role, but spokesman Leon Mar said in an email they understood that advisory committee members 'committed to keeping their discussions confidential — it was a condition of their participation.' Article content He deferred questions to Canadian Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault's office. Article content A spokeswoman for Guilbeault said the 'close collaboration' between CBC and Radio-Canada was important to deliver programming and pointed to how they share resources. Article content 'For these reasons, separating the two is not on the table,' Hermine Landry said in a statement. Article content 'We are currently working on our plan to strengthen CBC/Radio-Canada, and will have more to say in the near future.' Article content Jeffrey Dvorkin, a former CBC Radio managing editor and longtime public broadcasting executive, who is now retired, said the idea of splitting the corporation was 'radical' and that many would likely see it as 'an admission of defeat.' Article content Article content 'On the other hand,' he said in an interview, 'Radio-Canada is a much more acceptable and popular, and successful organization compared to CBC television.' Article content He added that he would not outright dismiss the idea and thinks 'it needs to be explored.' Article content 'I think that what's necessary now is for a mandate to be more adventuresome and more creative than they have been. My sense is that the CBC is running scared.' Article content Discussions around the feasibility of splitting the corporation have emerged in light of Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre's pitch to 'defund' CBC while promising to maintain Radio-Canada, which Liberals, including the former minister, said would lead to job losses. Article content The corporation has said that changes would be needed to the Broadcasting Act, which specifies that its mandate is to provide services in both official languages. Article content Article content While Poilievre himself has never outright called for separation, one of his Quebec MPs, Joel Godin, told La Presse Canadienne at the time that it would be easier to cut CBC if Radio-Canada were its own Crown corporation. Article content In May 2024, the Bloc Québécois also sought assurances following a report by La Presse that a 'modernization' plan the Crown corporation was advancing internally would not lead to a merger between the French and English programming wings. Article content Back in February, when St-Onge proposed her series of reforms, which were never advanced before Carney triggered an election in March, she called for 'emphasis on the separation of French and English programming.' Article content A final report into her proposals elaborated that changes to the Broadcasting Act, 'could emphasize the importance of the separation of editorial and programming decisions between CBC and Radio-Canada.' Article content It also argued that the English and French programming wings be 'distinct' and meet the needs of the different communities, but underscored the need to keep the corporation as one. Article content 'It is clear that a single organization provides a nationwide vision and a national approach while ensuring administrative and operational efficiencies.' Article content Carney's government has yet to advance the campaign promises he made to bolster the public broadcaster, which he emphasized was even more important for the Canadian institution in light of the ongoing trade war with U.S. President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly stated that he wants Canada to become its '51st state.' Article content While Carney adopted some of St-Onge's ideas, he has dropped others. The spokeswoman for Canadian Heritage said efforts to modernize the broadcaster would be based on the Liberals' platform. Nowhere in the document does it mention the issue of better emphasizing the separation between the French and English programming wings. Article content Article content Carney during the platform panned Poilievre's position on the broadcaster, saying 'you can't split this baby.' Article content While the former minister proposed bringing CBC/Radio-Canada's per capita funding closer to the level that other countries fund public broadcasters — around $66 per year, up from the current $33 it costs Canadians each year — Carney has vowed to work towards that goal in the long term and pledged an 'initial $150 million' upfront. Article content And while St-Onge proposed banning the corporation from running advertisements during newscasts, Carney's plan would allow it to keep running ads — generating another revenue source — while also making it more difficult to unilaterally pull funding by enshrining in law that such changes would have to be approved by Parliament, not a government cabinet. Article content More stable funding has been a longstanding call of the corporation, which has said it is an outlier among its counterparts. It has seen declining revenues that led to a growing structural deficit of $36 million last year. Article content Article content CBC/ Radio-Canada receives roughly $1.4 billion in annual funding, and in the 2024-25 budget, it received an extra $42 million, after warning it would have to cut jobs. Article content Trouble could still be brewing for the broadcaster under Carney's request that all federal departments and Crown corporations come back with 15 per cent in 'annual savings' over the next three years, which includes CBC/Radio-Canada. Article content 'Such reductions will necessarily have an impact on programs and services, but we don't have any information to share before the government's decisions on potential reductions are announced,' said Mar.
Global News
24-04-2025
- Politics
- Global News
Canada election 2025: Brome-Missisquoi
See more sharing options Send this page to someone via email Share this item on Twitter Share this item via WhatsApp Share this item on Facebook Brome-Missisquoi is a federal riding located in Quebec. This riding is currently represented by Liberal MP Pascale St-Onge who first took office in 2021 . St-Onge collected 21,488 votes, winning 34.96 per cent of the vote in the 2021 federal election. Voters will decide who will represent Brome-Missisquoi in Quebec during the upcoming Canadian election on April 28, 2025. Visit this page on election night for a complete breakdown of up to the minute results. Candidates Liberal: Louis Villeneuve Conservative: Steve Charbonneau NDP: Zoé Larose Bloc Québécois: Jeff Boudreault Green: Michelle Corcos People's Party: Jack Mcleod
CBC
21-02-2025
- Business
- CBC
Heritage minister pitches major CBC funding hike ahead of possible snap election
Canadian Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge is pitching a massive overhaul of CBC/Radio-Canada that would see the broadcaster's news programming be ad-free, and its per capita funding nearly doubled. But an impending snap election means that plan could never be enacted. P&P hears from Minister St-Onge.
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Heritage minister pitches CBC/Radio-Canada overhaul and a major funding hike
Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge announced Thursday the government's plan to overhaul CBC/Radio-Canada to shore up an institution she said is "at a critical crossroads" but one that is necessary as the country faces American threats to its sovereignty. While pitching a program that is unlikely to be enacted by the current government given the likelihood of a federal election sometime soon, St-Onge said American "billionaire tech oligarchs" are tightening their grip on the flow of information and Canada needs to revive its nearly century-old public broadcaster to "tell our own stories," saying it's a "national security issue" that so much of what Canadians consume is generated elsewhere. "More than ever it's important to rely on our own sources of information — made by and for Canadians," she said. "CBC will never be controlled by Musk or Zuckerberg. It will never belong to billionaire tech oligarchs. It will always belong to the people of Canada," she said, referencing Elon Musk, the owner of social media platform X and Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram. "It's not a Liberal or a Conservative issue. It's a commitment to ourselves, our culture and our independence," she added, saying the CBC was first formed in 1936 to give Canadians a homegrown source for news and entertainment when much of that content was American. To improve the quality of the corporation's programming in both English and French, boost the availability of "trustworthy, local and impartial news" and make the broadcaster a more reliable source of information during emergencies, St-Onge is pitching a funding increase that could nearly double its yearly appropriation. She said per capita funding for CBC/Radio-Canada is about $33.66, the second lowest in the developed world ahead of only the U.S. That funding level has been roughly the same for years and has not been meaningfully adjusted for inflation, St-Onge said. The minister said the public broadcaster's parliamentary appropriation should be closer to the $62.20 per capita funding average of the other G7 countries. She said the exact level of funding will be determined by a future prime minister or finance minister, but proposed it should rise over time as the broadcaster's mandate evolves. The minister said, citing government research, there is a direct link between a public broadcaster's level of funding and its performance — suggesting a cash infusion would bring more eyeballs to the broadcaster's content, boosting market share and citizens' trust. In addition to an appropriation hike, St-Onge is proposing to take the public broadcaster's funding out of the normal budgetary process, which is subject to the political whims of the day, and embed the funding formula in a separate act of Parliament so that the money is preset based on population levels. St-Onge said that would offer the broadcaster "stable and predictable funding," and reduce the risk of political tinkering. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has long promised to defund CBC but keep its French-language service, Radio-Canada. He has said there's no need for English-language content because other broadcasters can fill the void, pointing to conventional TV ratings that show CBC is a laggard. That funding level for CBC/Radio-Canada has been roughly the same for years and has not been meaningfully adjusted for inflation, the heritage minister said. (Evan Mitsui/CBC) It's a message he delivered again Thursday in Toronto when asked about the government's proposal. "We're going to cut wasteful spending, not just there but across the government to bring down inflation, deficits and taxes," he said. CBC/Radio-Canada received about $1.4 billion in funding from the government last year, according to the company's annual report. If a future government were to boost funding to the G7 average, as St-Onge is proposing, the corporation's funding could rise to about $2.5 billion a year. In return, St-Onge wants to make more of what CBC/Radio-Canada offers ad-free and fee-free so that "Canadians don't have to pay twice," she said. The corporation's English streaming service, Gem, offers a premium, commercial-free option for a fee. CBC's podcast division also sometimes charges a fee for early access to some of its programs. St-Onge said, in exchange for a boost in funding, she will require there be no ads around news, public affairs and "information" programming — on TV, radio or online. St-Onge said making the CBC ad-free would give other embattled news outlets a leg-up because those ad dollars would flow from the Crown corporation to commercial broadcasters, newspapers, other streaming platforms, podcasters and the like. CBC Radio is already ad-free. The minister also wants the corporation to be more responsive to what Canadians want out of their public broadcaster and she's pitching amendments to the Broadcasting Act, which governs the corporation, to force CBC to do more public consultations "on issues related to its priorities and strategies." That would bring the broadcaster "closer to the people," and address frequent claims CBC is "not receptive to hearing different points of view." St-Onge is also proposing governance reform to tamp down accusations that the broadcaster is somehow controlled by the political party in power. Instead of the federal cabinet directly appointing the broadcaster's CEO, St-Onge is proposing the CBC's board of directors pick the person to lead the corporation to insulate them from claims they are doing the government's bidding. After facing pointed criticism over the corporation's decision to hand out management bonuses while also announcing a plan to cut workers, St-Onge said the CEO's salary should be set by the board, not by a cabinet order-in-council, as it is now.
CBC
20-02-2025
- Business
- CBC
Heritage minister pitches CBC/Radio-Canada overhaul and a major funding hike
Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge announced Thursday the government's plan to overhaul CBC/Radio-Canada to shore up an institution she said is "at a critical crossroads" but one that is necessary as the country faces American threats to its sovereignty. While pitching a program that is unlikely to be enacted by the current government given the likelihood of a federal election sometime soon, St-Onge said American "billionaire tech oligarchs" are tightening their grip on the flow of information and Canada needs to revive its nearly century-old public broadcaster to "tell our own stories," saying it's a "national security issue" that so much of what Canadians consume is generated elsewhere. "More than ever it's important to rely on our own sources of information — made by and for Canadians," she said. "CBC will never be controlled by Musk or Zuckerberg. It will never belong to billionaire tech oligarchs. It will always belong to the people of Canada," she said, referencing Elon Musk, the owner of social media platform X and Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram. "It's not a Liberal or a Conservative issue. It's a commitment to ourselves, our culture and our independence," she added, saying the CBC was first formed in 1936 to give Canadians a homegrown source for news and entertainment when much of that content was American. To improve the quality of the corporation's programming in both English and French, boost the availability of "trustworthy, local and impartial news" and make the broadcaster a more reliable source of information during emergencies, St-Onge is pitching a funding increase that could nearly double its yearly appropriation. She said per capita funding for CBC/Radio-Canada is about $33.66, the second lowest in the developed world ahead of only the U.S. That funding level has been roughly the same for years and has not been meaningfully adjusted for inflation, St-Onge said. The minister said the public broadcaster's parliamentary appropriation should be closer to the $62.20 per capita funding average of the other G7 countries. She said the exact level of funding will be determined by a future prime minister or finance minister, but proposed it should rise over time as the broadcaster's mandate evolves. The minister said, citing government research, there is a direct link between a public broadcaster's level of funding and its performance — suggesting a cash infusion would bring more eyeballs to the broadcaster's content, boosting market share and citizens' trust. In addition to an appropriation hike, St-Onge is proposing to take the public broadcaster's funding out of the normal budgetary process, which is subject to the political whims of the day, and embed the funding formula in a separate act of Parliament so that the money is preset based on population levels. St-Onge said that would offer the broadcaster "stable and predictable funding," and reduce the risk of political tinkering. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has long promised to defund CBC but keep its French-language service, Radio-Canada. He has said there's no need for English-language content because other broadcasters can fill the void, pointing to conventional TV ratings that show CBC is a laggard. It's a message he delivered again Thursday in Toronto when asked about the government's proposal. "We're going to cut wasteful spending, not just there but across the government to bring down inflation, deficits and taxes," he said. CBC/Radio-Canada received about $1.4 billion in funding from the government last year, according to the company's annual report. If a future government were to boost funding to the G7 average, as St-Onge is proposing, the corporation's funding could rise to about $2.5 billion a year. In return, St-Onge wants to make more of what CBC/Radio-Canada offers ad-free and fee-free so that "Canadians don't have to pay twice," she said. The corporation's English streaming service, Gem, offers a premium, commercial-free option for a fee. CBC's podcast division also sometimes charges a fee for early access to some of its programs. St-Onge said, in exchange for a boost in funding, she will require there be no ads around news, public affairs and "information" programming — on TV, radio or online. St-Onge said making the CBC ad-free would give other embattled news outlets a leg-up because those ad dollars would flow from the Crown corporation to commercial broadcasters, newspapers, other streaming platforms, podcasters and the like. CBC Radio is already ad-free. The minister also wants the corporation to be more responsive to what Canadians want out of their public broadcaster and she's pitching amendments to the Broadcasting Act, which governs the corporation, to force CBC to do more public consultations "on issues related to its priorities and strategies." That would bring the broadcaster "closer to the people," and address frequent claims CBC is "not receptive to hearing different points of view." St-Onge is also proposing governance reform to tamp down accusations that the broadcaster is somehow controlled by the political party in power. Instead of the federal cabinet directly appointing the broadcaster's CEO, St-Onge is proposing the CBC's board of directors pick the person to lead the corporation to insulate them from claims they are doing the government's bidding. After facing pointed criticism over the corporation's decision to hand out management bonuses while also announcing a plan to cut workers, St-Onge said the CEO's salary should be set by the board, not by a cabinet order-in-council, as it is now.
