CEO prods Bell for shuttering French language fund
MONTREAL – Quebecor announced Friday it contributed more than $500 million to Quebec’s cultural industries in 2019.
“Québec culture is an integral part of Quebecor’s raison d’être,” said Pierre Karl Péladeau, president and CEO, in the company’s press release. “It is at the heart of our business just as it is central to our philanthropic activities. Since March 2020, Québec – and the world – have been plunged into an exceptional crisis. At this time, our commitment to energizing our culture and supporting our artists and cultural workers will be more critically important than ever. The Quebecor family will remain fully and actively invested in this endeavour.”
Over the weekend, however, Péladeau used that springboard and took to Twitter to criticize Bell for announcing the closure of Le Fonds Harold Greenberg, which provided film and TV funding in the province.
“It is impossible to understand the stinginess of Bell which cuts a few million dollars to Quebec culture while it achieves more than $10 billion in operating profit,” he tweeted in French, linking to a story in the Quebecor-owned Le Journal de Montreal.
To be fair, Bell Media spends millions more on culture in the province of Quebec every year than what came from the Greenberg fund.
Quebecor’s highlights for 2019 are:
- Total $500 million-plus contribution to Québec’s cultural industries in 2019, including $240.1 million from Videotron and $262.9 million from TVA Group.
- A sustained commitment to the production of original French-language content that yielded the creation and broadcast of more than 80 original productions on Club illico, TVA and its specialty channels in 2019.
- Close to $19 million in support for 160 cultural organizations and events in the fields of film, literature, music and song, history, heritage, performing arts and visual arts across Québec, accounting for nearly half of Quebecor’s annual donations and sponsorships.
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