Evidence of meeting #123 for Industry, Science and Technology in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was levy.
A video is available from Parliament.
June 14th, 2018 / 5:20 p.m.
President, Re:Sound Music Licensing Company
No, because, as I said, the rates are already so low.
There is a separate exemption—and this may help in terms of what you're asking as well. Community radio stations have a separate exemption, and all community radio stations have an exemption where they only pay $100 per year regardless of what size they are. If you come within the definition of a community radio station, you're not paying royalties, so that does already exempt the truly small community stations—
5:25 p.m.
President, Re:Sound Music Licensing Company
—and we have no problem with that. We think that should continue to exist.
5:25 p.m.
Conservative
Alex Nuttall Conservative Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON
You respect that policy. Okay.
I have one other question—and excuse my ignorance on the subject. Anyone can answer this. When you're looking at satellite radio versus traditional radio, is there a difference under the regimes that are currently in place, or all they all treated as one?
5:25 p.m.
President, Re:Sound Music Licensing Company
No, satellite radio is separate, and the rates are set separately. There is no exemption in the Copyright Act for satellite radio.
There's no exemption in the Copyright Act for any other type of music user. To what I was saying earlier, it really is not technologically neutral and it favours commercial radio broadcasters—a sort of older technology for distributing music, but still a very important technology—over other technologies for distributing music.
5:25 p.m.
Conservative
Alex Nuttall Conservative Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON
It's not direct. It's apples to oranges, then, and it's in favour of the traditional; and so what you're basically asking is that Global—which I think now owns Corus, or maybe I'm mistaken on who owns what, but....
5:25 p.m.
Vice-President of Public Affairs and Executive Director, Association québécoise de l'industrie du disque, du spectacle et de la vidéo
There's Bell.
5:25 p.m.
Conservative
Alex Nuttall Conservative Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON
Bell, Global, they step up. They get rid of the exemption and they pay fair way.
5:25 p.m.
Vice-President of Public Affairs and Executive Director, Association québécoise de l'industrie du disque, du spectacle et de la vidéo
I would suggest or invite you to look at the last report of the CRTC published one week ago. In that report, submitted to Minister Joly, it shows that the radio industry is the most resilient and the most stable media industry, compared to TV, compared to anything else.
The industry is still not growing.
However, it is stable compared to the other media. It's a good point.
5:25 p.m.
Conservative
Alex Nuttall Conservative Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON
They're not like the local newspaper industry.
5:25 p.m.
Vice-President of Public Affairs and Executive Director, Association québécoise de l'industrie du disque, du spectacle et de la vidéo
They are not, not at all.
5:25 p.m.
Conservative
5:25 p.m.
Conservative
Matt Jeneroux Conservative Edmonton Riverbend, AB
Mr. Chair, about 20 minutes ago I made a very formal request that Drake attend the committee. Some were even saying it was a courageous request, but I won't name names around the table. I was just wondering if we could get a bit of a status update on that call. Have we heard back from him yet?
5:25 p.m.
Some hon. members
Oh, oh!
5:25 p.m.
A voice
He promised to call you back.
5:25 p.m.
A voice
He used to call me on my cellphone.
5:25 p.m.
NDP
Brian Masse NDP Windsor West, ON
He can't. He is working on a Degrassi High reunion video at the moment. There you go.
5:25 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Dan Ruimy
We'll get you an update on Mr. Drake.
On that note, I would like to thank our witnesses today for their time, their expertise, and their interest in the subject matter. As you can see, it's something we are deeply engaged in, and it's very important to us. Thank you very much.
Thank you to members, staff, and everybody who's part of this lovely study.
We are adjourned.