Mr. Speaker, it is indeed a privilege to be able to enter the debate this morning, especially on the motion that would have the effect of taking away the essence or the substance of Bill C-216 which was presented to the House by the member for Sarnia-Lambton.
I join my colleagues and also the member opposite in congratulating the member for Sarnia-Lambton for bringing this to the attention of the House and also for providing an opportunity for each of us to express ourselves and to vote on this issue and the motion before us which destroys the essence of the bill.
I am going to oppose that motion and suggest why I want to support the bill and why I must oppose this motion. In the context of making this presentation I will address three questions: What would the benefits be of supporting Bill C-216? Why is the bill being opposed at this time? Why am I supporting the bill?
What would the benefits be of this legislation if it were to be passed by this House? The number one benefit is that the freedom of choice would be given to the consumer. Recently the CRTC approved 23 new channels. The effort and the impact of those 23 new channels is to give to the consumer a wide variety of choices in what they can pick off the air waves or in this case, from the menu that is being offered by the cable companies.
If there is one thing we need in this world today, it is the opportunity to choose with so many different programs available. There will probably be very shortly through direct to home television and various other options some 200 channels available to the consumer. The consumer wants to choose not only what the service is that shall be provided to them but also the quality and the price at which that service or opportunity ought to be given to them.
There are today many many providers of television programs in the world. We can get all kinds of information from cable companies. We can get all kinds of information from the grey market where companies are taking the signal directly off the satellite and beaming it out into the marketplace to the consumer.
One could argue that the grey market is really not a legal market; it is a market which in fact is illegal because there is no legislation covering that issue. People are taking programs, using American addresses or some kind of vehicle that allows them to come into the Canadian area. They are watching these programs. The time has come for us to choose clearly and directly what it is that we want.
There is fierce competition in the cable industry, in the satellite industry, in the whole area. As that competition becomes more aggressive and as that competition becomes more intense, the reason for interference by a commission of government is increasingly bad.
We need to have a place where the consumer ultimately begins to rule what will enter his mind. It is through the mind that we finally determine our actions and the thoughts that take place. Members know that the actions we enter into are first of all thoughts in our minds. It is absolutely imperative that consumers be given the opportunity and the legislative protection to allow them to choose what will come. The cable company or any other group does not have the right to decide for the consumers what they will see and the price they will pay for it.
What happened last January was the suggestion that the cable companies would present new packages and the consumers would pay the new prices. If consumers did not want the new package, then they could write, phone or communicate in some fashion to the cable company to indicate they did not want the service in their homes.
People are busy. People are not always aware of some of the things which are happening around them. There is a habit of using automatic withdrawals from the banking system to pay for these items. Otherwise the consumer looks at the invoice and says: "All right, I will pay it".
More significantly, in this busy world there are certain deadlines. People are given an option. They can say they do not want the new service, but they have to do it by a certain date. If the deadline is not met, the consumer receives an invoice for the new service.
That is not a good idea. Consumers should know exactly what it is they are paying for. They must know exactly when they must make their decision. The point at which that ought to happen is the point at which we make the decision to buy a particular service. It is not the point at which the company says: "This is what you are going to get and it will cost you another $5 per month after this date. The only way to avoid it is to tell us you do not want the service".
There is another thing which comes into play here, that is, there are more and more wireless television transmissions appearing than there are cable. Our cable companies have provided a tremendous service to Canadians. I want to congratulate them. I want to commend them for the quality and for the price at which they deliver the service. It has been excellent. However, a new era is rapidly dawning. We are going to move into the wireless transmission of television programs to an ever increasing degree.
Why is this bill being opposed at this time? Could it be that this bill is being opposed because the current operation actually preserves the monopoly of the cable companies in certain areas? Could it be that it would require the cable companies to become
more aggressive in their marketing? That would cost a little more money than it does now. As a consequence it would reduce their revenue.
Are the cable companies actually afraid of the wireless transmission? Will it make their installations obsolete? Could that be the case? Could it be that it will reduce the power of the CRTC to pick winners and thereby extend certain power to the commission that they would lose if negative option billing were to be outlawed?
We can ask all kinds of questions. One begins to wonder what is the real reason behind this sudden shift in thinking on the front bench.
Could it be that there is a fear that French programming would become uneconomic to transmit and therefore we would have to preserve that facility? Will we now force other people to subsidize that programming? Is there a concern that certain parts of Canada would resent subsidizing the television programs designed for a selective audience?
If the programming is good enough, if the entertainment value is strong enough and if the people feel deeply enough about the issue, they will pay for the programming. We have all kinds of evidence to show that is the case. The issue of forcing people to pay for something that somebody else wants is not in the interests of the consumer generally speaking.
These questions need to be addressed and they have not been addressed.
Why am I supporting the bill? The time has come for us to recognize that the consumers must be able to choose to the greatest degree possible the kind of programming which they desire. It should be my choice. It should be the choice of every individual who has a television set and wants to subscribe to a service as to what it is they will choose. If they need to pay for it, they will pay for it on the basis of what they want.
Second, I am supporting this bill because technological advances increase the number and kind of choices available to consumers. The consumer today has a far greater number of choices available, and should be able to choose them. There should be no legal infringement on his ability to choose among these various kinds of programs. The motion before us will do exactly that.
Monopoly protection also prevents the marketplace from operating and allowing individuals to have a level playing field as consumers and on the industry side as well.
In light of the consumer, in light of a free marketplace and the people of Canada, I suggest we oppose this motion and support Bill C-216.