Question Period Note: CBC/Radio-Canada’s role with respect to official-language-minority communities

How will the Government ensure that the national public broadcaster better reflects Canada’s linguistic duality and minority language communities?

• CBC/Radio-Canada has a mandate to reflect the particular needs and circumstances of English and French linguistic minorities.
• Under its broadcasting licences, the Corporation also has obligations to ensure that these communities are well served.
• As we modernize the Broadcasting Act and the Official Languages Act, we will consider how best to ensure that our national public broadcaster reflects official-language-minority communities.

• The mandate letter of the Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages calls upon her to “modernize and reinforce the Official Languages Act. As part of these modernization efforts, you will protect CBC/Radio-Canada’s role in better reflecting Canada’s linguistic duality and minority language communities across the country.”

• The Broadcasting Act stipulates that the programming provided by CBC/Radio-Canada should reflect “the different needs and circumstances of each official language community, including the particular needs and circumstances of English and French linguistic minorities.” The Broadcasting Act also requires CBC/Radio-Canada to “have regard to the principles and purposes of the Official Languages Act” in planning any “extensions” of its broadcasting services.

• The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) also imposes specific obligations on CBC/Radio-Canada with respect to official-language-minority communities as conditions of licence.

• The terms of reference for the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review (BTLR) panel called upon them to consider how CBC/Radio-Canada can support and protect the vitality of Canada’s official-language-minority communities. In its final report, the Panel recognized and reaffirmed CBC/Radio-Canada’s obligation to serve official-language-minority communities as a “core feature of the public broadcaster.” The panel also recommended that the policy objectives of the Broadcasting Act be amended to require the media communications sector to “ensure the creation of and access to content by and for official language minority communities.”

• CBC/Radio-Canada is a federal institution within the meaning of the Official Languages Act. Accordingly, CBC/Radio-Canada is subject to Part VII of that Act, which imposes a duty on federal institutions “to ensure that positive measures are taken” to enhance the vitality of the English and French linguistic minority communities in Canada, to support and assist their development, and to foster the full recognition and use of both English and French in Canadian society.

• An Interdepartmental Working Group on the Modernization of the Official Languages Act, co-chaired by Canadian Heritage, the Treasury Board Secretariat and Justice, with the participation of the Privy Council Office, was created to implement the modernization of the Official Languages Act. The working group is examining modernization options, including those related to the public broadcaster.

• In May 2019, the Minister of Tourism, Official Languages and La Francophonie announced the creation of The Mauril, an online platform being developed by CBC/Radio-Canada to allow Canadians to learn both official languages.

None