The Government of Quebec requested to participate "actively and significantly" in the discussion about the future of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC/Radio-Canada).

This was a recommendation included in a report submitted in June to the Minister of Culture and Communications of the Quebec government, Mathieu Lacombe, and Radio Canada obtained a copy of it. Lacombe sent the document to the federal government to ensure that Quebec's voice would be heard in the discussion initiated by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal government in Ottawa last May.

Pascal Saint-Onge, the Canadian Heritage Minister responsible for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, formed a committee to advise her on redefining the mandate given to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

"Not all decisions can be made in Ottawa; there must be a dialogue (...). And the dialogue cannot ignore what the Quebec government thinks," said the Quebec Minister of Culture and Communications.

The report submitted to Minister Lacombe stresses the necessity for Quebec to demand participation "as it is the best judge of the state of culture and the French language on its territory."

The report's authors, Michèle Fortin and Émilie Bennett, believe that Radio Canada (the French-language division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) has played a key role in the growth of Quebec, the only Canadian province with a French-speaking majority.

"It is undoubtedly a true pillar of the cultural identity of the Québécois nation and the French language," Fortin and Bennett wrote about Radio Canada in their report, adding that the work of the federal committee must address Quebec's cultural specificity, hence the importance of the requested participation.

If the issue of differentiation from Americans in English-speaking Canadian (provinces) has colored discussions about public broadcasting since its inception, for French speakers it is simply a matter of ensuring the survival of the language.

Quoted from an excerpt of the report by Michèle Fortin and Émilie Bennett

The report's authors recommended amending the Broadcasting Act to include a requirement for executive directors of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and its board chair to be proficient in both of Canada's official languages, French and English.