OTTAWA – Appearing at a Parliamentary committee earlier today to talk about the impact of the Federal Court of Appeal’s decision granting the Information Commissioner access to certain CBC/Radio-Canada documents, the national public broadcaster instead found itself having to defend its accountability and transparency practices.
While the House of Commons Standing Commission on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics began in a rather cordial manner with Conservative MP Dean Del Mastro lauding the CBC for releasing information regarding money spent on its fleet of vehicles, the mood changed when he seemed to accuse the corporation of hiding hospitality and entertainment expenses under its journalistic, programming and creative exemptions.
“If we did what you suggest we could do, we’d be cheating,” responded Hubert Lacroix, CBC’s president and CEO. “We have a board of directors that oversees through its audit committee the expenses that we use for activities. You have more financial information about how we deal with the $1.1 billion that we get from government and taxpayers…than you have ever had before.”
The answer didn’t appease Del Mastro.
“I think anyone that reviews the access to information [documents that have] been released could only conclude that there’s been reclassification of expenses… because the overall expenditures on items like hospitality and so forth haven’t changed, but the actual amounts that each member of the executive is charging has changed. So either the practices have changed dramatically or things have been reclassified.”
The Conservative MP continued to press the CBC on its expenditure accounting practices, leveling criticism on the national public broadcaster’s decision to throw a party for George Stroumboulopoulos’ show at the Toronto International Film Festival (something Sun Media’s CBC beat reporter Brian Lilly criticized at the time). “I think the public deserves to know… if there was a significant amount of money spent. I don’t understand why that shouldn’t be made available to the public,” Del Mastro wondered.
Lacroix defended the show launch as a good promotional tool, particularly since many of the people who would appear on the show would be at TIFF. He noted the cost of the launch was the same as placing a single ad in Sun Media newspapers in five cities, not the $1 million as floated by Quebecor.
“For the record [this] has been established at around $225,000,” added Del Mastro.
“No sir, $64,000 if you do the ad,” countered Lacroix.
No decision on whether to appeal court ruling
DESPITE THE SPENDING accusations, the committee did get reaction from the CBC on the FCA’s ruling. After a first reading, the national public broadcaster didn’t have any major concerns with the court’s decision. “We are still studying this ruling but following our first reading of it, it would seem to clarify the lower court judge, Judge Boivin’s decision, which could satisfy most of our concerns,” Lacroix, once a practicing lawyer, said during his opening remarks.
NDP MP Charlie Angus wondered whether the CBC believes it may appeal the decision to the Supreme Court of Canada. “Are you considering an appeal to the Supreme Court? Because for taxpayers we want to ensure we are getting value for the dollars that are being spent,” he asked. “You say you’re studying it, does that mean a possibility of going to the Supreme Court or studying it in terms of how you’re going to sit down and meet [it].?”
Lacroix reiterated that it was still too early to tell whether a Supreme Court appeal is warranted. “We’ll make a decision in the next couple of days,” he said. The CBC chief executive noted that he couldn’t provide any further information on this because he has been holed up for two days dealing in board of directors meetings and then had to make his way to Ottawa to prepare for the committee hearing. He added though that the major concern for the corporation was addressed in the decision.
“There’s an interesting and important study of [section 68.1 of the Access to Information Act] there, but as I said to you one of the most important points that we had, and that we thought needed to be protected, was our journalistic activities, our journalistic sources. And after the first read it seems that has been correctly protected by the appeal court.”
During its appearance, CBC couldn’t escape having to talk about operations going forward, specifically potential cuts to services and programming. Asked whether the corporation has made any decisions on where cuts may be made, particularly as it relates to services to francophones outside of Quebec, Lacroix wasn’t yet ready to talk about that. “I don’t know what the cuts [are] going to be,” he said in response to the Angus question. “We have submitted the proposals under the deficit reduction action plan. We explained what we think would be the impact [but] at one point in time, the numbers don’t make sense anymore and [are] no longer about efficiencies, it has to do with programs and services.”
Angus pressed Lacroix on the issue, asking if the corporation has a plan.
“Oh yes, we are making plans. We are making plans like any smart and reasonable management team,” said Lacroix. “We understand what that would mean to us and we’re trying to see whether we can improve on the first pass in trying to take the body blow of a substantial cut in our revenues.”
