QUESTION PERIOD — Ministry of Canadian Heritage
Canadian Programming
September 25, 2025
Thank you, minister, for coming here and giving me the opportunity to ask this question.
Minister, as you may know, the production of children’s programming has been declining for several years, robbing Canadian children of shows that reflect their experiences and communities. My question, minister, is this: How is the government ensuring that Canadian children have access to high-quality Canadian programming that reflects our values?
Thank you for the question. It is a fact that we are seeing a decline in the production of kids’ shows in this country. In fact, we are seeing this in most countries with the notable exceptions of the United States and maybe Britain. Obviously, one thing we can do is to ensure we have a well-funded public broadcaster. CBC/Radio-Canada is not only a broadcaster but is also an entity that will buy series from Canadian producers in French and English, including kids’ series.
That is why we have committed, in the first year of our mandate, to increase the budget of the public broadcaster by $150 million and, over a certain number of years, to bring the funding of that public broadcaster on par with the average funding of G7 nations. Right now, we’re far behind the average of G7 nations in terms of investment per capita. We want to get somewhere around that average in the coming years to ensure that the public broadcaster can play this important role.
Parallel to that, we are also looking at what we can do with private broadcasters. We have a number of measures to support them. Obviously, the agreement under the Online Streaming Act will provide $200 million per year for our creators. Some of it will go to TV. Some of it will go to music.
