Radio-Canada Should Get Back to Core Mandate, Says Conservative Quebec Senator

People walk toward the CBC building in Toronto in a file photo. Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press

The federal Conservatives’ top Quebec Tory says the party’s concerns about the CBC do not apply to the broadcaster’s French-language wing, but one of its senators suggests there is a need to look at it mandate.

Quebec Sen. Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu, speaking in French, told reporters on his way into the party’s weekly caucus meeting this morning that Radio-Canada’s mandate should be re-centred to its core mission.

Boisvenu says the party’s position has always been that if the public money the broadcaster receives is put into programming such as variety shows that compete with the private market, that’s an unhealthy situation.

The Conservatives’ position to cut the roughly $1 billion CBC receives in annual funding is in the spotlight after its leader, Pierre Poilievre, asked Twitter to add the label of “government-funded media” to its main account, which the social-media giant did late Sunday.

Poilievre did not ask company to do the same for Radio-Canada, the broadcaster’s French-language programming wing, and has said in past media interviews that he sees value in offering services to francophone communities.

Pierre Paul-Hus, his lieutenant for Quebec, told reporters Tuesday that the next step is to see how to manage Radio-Canada’s mandate separately.

Paul-Hus, also speaking in French, called Radio-Canada an essential service in Quebec as well as to francophones outside the province, saying CBC’s English services are the main target of the party’s criticism.

Boisvenu echoed those comments, saying that he believes that services to francophone communities outside Quebec are important and could be beefed up.