TVA says federal parties have to pay total of $300K for head-to-head French debate

Former Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe, left to right, then-Liberal leader Justin Trudeau, journalist Pierre Bruneau, then-Conservative leader Stephen Harper and ex-NDP leader Tom Mulcair pose for photos before the start of a French-language debate broadcast by Quebec's TVA network in Montreal on Friday, Oct. 2, 2015. (The Canadian Press/Pool-Joel Lemay) (Joël Lemay/The Canadian Press)

If the four main federal political parties want to take part in the TVA network’s head-to-head French-language debate in the upcoming election campaign, they will have to shell out $75,000 each, the Montreal-headquartered broadcaster said Friday.

The Quebecor Media-owned television network says it needs cash to offset the costs of producing the Face-à-Face debate, which is divided into segments pitting one leader against another.

Louis-Philippe Neveu, executive producer of the debate, says that given the difficult financial, economic and competitive situation facing TVA Group and other media industry members, the only option for producing the show is to ask parties to contribute to production costs.

Neveu said in a statement that the $300,000 being sought will only cover part of those costs and will not yield any profit to TVA. The network doesn’t generate any advertising revenues during the broadcast, he said.

“Indeed, a program of this magnitude requires the deployment of considerable resources and technical and technological solutions,” Neveu said, describing costs for such things as setting up a studio and a production control room.

Quebecor says its TVA operations are about to move to a new studio east of downtown Montreal that isn’t large enough to hold the leaders debate, which will have to take place at Studio Mels, a production facility also owned by the telecommunications company.

Quebecor says its request for money isn’t out of line. Political parties spend money on advertising, the company says, adding that the $75,000 being sought is equivalent to taking out a page in the Saturday edition of the National Post.

“In the current context of TVA Group, production costs remain an insurmountable barrier without the contribution of the political parties,” Neveu said. “Without the support … the face-to-face debate cannot be presented.”

The Bloc Québécois and the Conservative Party of Canada were on board with the cash call.

“The Bloc Québécois calls on the Liberal party and the NDP to stop procrastinating and to take the necessary measures to participate in the TVA debate out of respect for the Quebec population,” party spokeswoman Joanie Riopel said in an emailed statement.

The Conservative party said it was ready to provide the requested amount. “It’s important to reach out to Quebecers and francophones across the country,” the party said in a post on X. “We shouldn’t be debating the debate.”

A spokesperson for the NDP said that while the party looks forward to debates, it hasn’t made a decision on paying TVA, adding that the network’s request would set an uncomfortable precedent.

The Liberals did not return a request for comment on whether they would pay to attend the debate.

During federal elections, there is typically an English and a French-language debate organized by a consortium of media and the Leaders' Debate Commission. The head-to-head TVA debate format has been used during recent provincial and federal campaigns and has proven quite popular, attracting an average of 1.3 million viewers, according to the network.

When asked, Quebecor’s media team declined to say whether the debate would go ahead without the participation of all four political parties. It also declined to say whether a similar amount would be sought from provincial parties during the 2026 provincial election.

“The presentation of this unique format is clearly in the public interest and has already proven effective in guiding Quebecers in their election decisions,” Neveu says.

A federal election call is expected by Prime Minister Mark Carney on Sunday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 21, 2025.

— With files from Anja Karadeglija in Ottawa.