Bill C-10 (Historical)

An Act to amend the Broadcasting Act and to make related and consequential amendments to other Acts

This enactment amends the Broadcasting Act to, among other things,
(a) add online undertakings — undertakings for the transmission or retransmission of programs over the Internet — as a distinct class of broadcasting undertakings;
(b) update the broadcasting policy for Canada set out in section 3 of that Act by, among other things, providing that the Canadian broadcasting system should serve the needs and interests of all Canadians — including Canadians from racialized communities and Canadians of diverse ethnocultural backgrounds — and should provide opportunities for Indigenous persons, programming that reflects Indigenous cultures and that is in Indigenous languages, and programming that is accessible without barriers to persons with disabilities;
(c) specify that the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (the “Commission”) must regulate and supervise the Canadian broadcasting system in a manner that
(i) takes into account the different characteristics of Indigenous language broadcasting and the different conditions under which broadcasting undertakings that provide Indigenous language programming operate,
(ii) is fair and equitable as between broadcasting undertakings providing similar services,
(iii) facilitates the provision of programs that are accessible without barriers to persons with disabilities, and
(iv) takes into account the variety of broadcasting undertakings to which that Act applies and avoids imposing obligations on a class of broadcasting undertakings if doing so will not contribute in a material manner to the implementation of the broadcasting policy;
(d) amend the procedure relating to the issuance by the Governor in Council of policy directions to the Commission;
(e) replace the Commission’s power to impose conditions on a licence with a power to make orders imposing conditions on the carrying on of broadcasting undertakings;
(f) provide the Commission with the power to require that persons carrying on broadcasting undertakings make expenditures to support the Canadian broadcasting system;
(g) authorize the Commission to provide information to the Minister responsible for that Act, the Chief Statistician of Canada and the Commissioner of Competition, and set out in that Act a process by which a person who submits certain types of information to the Commission may designate the information as confidential;
(h) amend the procedure by which the Governor in Council may, under section 28 of that Act, set aside a decision of the Commission to issue, amend or renew a licence or refer such a decision back to the Commission for reconsideration and hearing;
(i) specify that a person shall not carry on a broadcasting undertaking, other than an online undertaking, unless they do so in accordance with a licence or they are exempt from the requirement to hold a licence;
(j) harmonize the punishments for offences under Part II of that Act and clarify that a due diligence defence applies to the existing offences set out in that Act; and
(k) allow for the imposition of administrative monetary penalties for violations of certain provisions of that Act or of the Accessible Canada Act.
The enactment also makes related and consequential amendments to other Acts.

[Gabriel Pelletier]

Second, we need to reinforce the purpose with respect to original French-language content. If the text of the Broadcasting Act is not strengthened in this regard, major online companies, such as Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney+, will be able to continue to present content dubbed or subtitled in French, with little or no original French-language content.

Ten days ago, Netflix's co-chief executive officer stated that his company has spent more than $2.5 billion in Canada since 2017. With that amount, Netflix has produced only one film and five shows in French. Their combined budgets account for only about 0.3% of the $2.5 billion. Clearly, the production of original French-language Canadian content is not a priority for either Netflix or other foreign companies whose track record is worse.

Programming overall is not much better, as Netflix has less than a dozen Canadian series or films in French. Requirements therefore must be imposed on these online undertakings so that Canadians can see original French-language content. This is not a matter of imposing quotas in the act, but rather of developing appropriate objectives to ensure that original French-language content represents a significant proportion of Canadian programming.

These are two of our recommendations, which overlap with those of the Coalition for the Diversity of Cultural Expressions. As one of its founding members, we support the coalition. Canadians' increased use of online services during the pandemic reminds us of the urgency to act to correct the inequities afflicting our broadcasting system. We therefore urge members of the committee and the government to move Bill C-10 forward quickly so that it can be passed as soon as possible.

Thank you for your attention, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. We are available to answer any questions you may have.

[Mylène Cyr, Executive Director, Association des réalisateurs et réalisatrices du Québec]

Thank you, Mr. Pelletier.

Members of the committee, it's a pleasure to meet with you.

We support Bill C-10, which confirms that online broadcasting is covered under the Broadcasting Act and sets out how the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) should regulate online undertakings. That being said, Bill C-10 needs to be improved to ensure that essential aspects of the current Broadcasting Act are not eliminated and that certain shortcomings are addressed. Given the limited time available to us today, we would like to make only two recommendations on matters that are particularly close to our hearts.

First, the requirement to make predominant use of Canadian creative resources must be maintained. Already, over the past 10 years, the foreign location and service production in Canada has grown from 30% to 52% of total production, while independent production of programs recognized as Canadian has decreased from 48% to 35% of total production. The foreign location and service production was 78% U.S.-based, with production almost exclusively in English.

We do not want any new version of the Broadcasting Act to endorse foreign location and service production as a substitute for truly Canadian production. This is why we do want the act to make predominant use of Canadian creative resources. By retaining the text of the current act, the CRTC could continue to tailor this requirement to online undertakings according to their nature, as the wording of the act already provides the CRTC with this possibility by stating: “unless the nature of the service provided by the undertaking... renders that use impracticable.”

The floor is yours again, Mr. Pelletier.

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

Welcome back, everyone—that was a nice, quick transition, wasn't it?—as we make our way through testimony once again. Of course, we are talking about Bill C-10, which passed second reading in the House and is here at the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage.

We're into our second hour now. We are going to hear from the Association des réalisateurs et réalisatrices du Québec, Gabriel Pelletier, president, and Mylène Cyr, executive director. We also have, no stranger to this committee, from the Canada Media Fund, with Valerie Creighton, who is the president and chief executive officer, and Nathalie Clermont, vice-president, programs and business development. Finally we have from the Indigenous Screen Office, Jesse Wente, who is the executive director.

Thank you so much, everyone, for joining us. We'll give you five minutes. I have a little bit of flexibility, but not a lot given the time. We're going to start, of course, with the Association des réalisateurs.

Mr. Pelletier, you have the floor for five minutes.

[Damon D'Oliveira]

What I would say is that as a racialized producer primarily the content that I have made has been specific to Black and queer communities. I feel that this is a great moment, and the CMPA strongly supports a fully inclusive broadcasting sector that reflects the diversity of Canada, especially equity-seeking and sovereignty-seeking communities, including indigenous peoples and Black and racialized peoples, people with disabilities, across a broad spectrum.

This would reach across the country. This would reach to Alberta, as well. I do feel that if we are able to control our content, control our IP.... What I have been able to do as a producer in Canada is that I have taken the revenues that my company has earned and I have put that into additional content, so I am now working with a much broader spectrum of people. My development slate over the last five years since doing The Book of Negroes has grown considerably, and I feel that if that ability or the ability to control our underlying IP is taken away, it will reduce our capacity to do so.

If we get the support through Bill C-10 to retain control of our underlying work, we can generate a lot more content in this country and feed all of the growing domestic and international streaming platforms.

[Anthony Housefather, Liberal, Mount Royal, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm going to share my time with the great Black journalist we have on our team, Ms. Ien.

I will devote my questions to the CMPA.

As somebody who used to practise as a general counsel, I know how important intellectual property is. I think it would shock the consciousness of Canadians if they understood the types of deals that Netflix was actually asking Canadian creative forces to make, which are basically buyouts, where you get paid a set amount of money up front. They may retain you for two years as an employee on the show, then get rid of you no matter how successful the show is and do the show entirely with a creative team outside of Canada.

In terms of amendments to Bill C-10, in 2004 the United Kingdom created a terms of trade that gave independent producers control over secondary rights of their content. I understand that it had both economic and creative benefits. Can you speak to what the U.K.'s example was and what amendments we should make to Bill C-10 to reflect what the U.K. actually did?

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

Is it in Bill C-10? Do you believe Bill C-10 as a piece of legislation can do that?

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

It's an excellent comment. I appreciate that, because if there isn't a way to discover it....

Is this legislation strong enough to challenge the global services? Look at what Australia is dealing with at the moment. Can we, under Bill C-10, be strong enough to challenge the global services?

[Erin Haskett]

Especially for us as Canadian producers and as it's proposed in Bill C-10, if there's a requirement around Canadian content, we ultimately will have a voice on those streaming services—whatever streaming service it may be. There's a different kind of resource available to us with that. Ultimately if you're looking at any of those particular streaming services, you'll be able to find Canadian content.

I'm just going to throw it to Reynolds or Damon, in case there's anything they wanted to add to that.

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

How does that get to my children and grandchildren, so they would find that? They're not watching CBC. They're not watching cable. They're going directly to global services to get what they want.

I don't watch much on cable either anymore. I don't watch mainline news show anymore. I get mine from social media. How does Bill C-10 help get yours to the platforms?

[Erin Haskett]

Thank you for your question.

I think this is a real opportunity for us, especially as we have new storytellers and new points of view coming to the table. We've essentially had a group of gatekeepers in this country who have only allowed a certain kind of story and that has to serve a certain kind of audience.

There's a lot of flexibility for us, particularly with the independent production sector. It's really important that we strengthen that to be able to focus on the diversity of regions, voices, sizes of company and kinds of producers. The opportunities with Bill C-10, especially with the recommendations we're making today around owning Canadian content and including codes of practice, would really strengthen our domestic industry as a whole.

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Quickly, this is for the Canadian Media Producers Association. I may be the only one in my family who has cable anymore. My adult children and adult grandchildren don't. On Bill C-10, you talk about the advantage of global streaming services. As I discuss this with my children and grandchildren, they have no idea what Bill C-10 is or what it can do. They just want to go find whatever it is they want to watch.

When you look at Bill C-10 and talk about the advantage of global streaming services, how can this bill work to your advantage? Where do you see we're going with Bill C-10 in helping do what you want to get done?

I'll start with Ms. Haskett.

[Heather McPherson, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

We are seeing that even just local media in itself is not able to have a voice. We're losing our local media, particularly when we look at a disadvantaged group of journalists who are already in that situation.

I'm going to ask the Racial Equity Media Collective a question now. When Bill C-10 was being developed there was very little consultation with the BIPOC community organizations in music, film and TV. They weren't consulted in the research and the drafting of the bill.

Can you talk a little bit about how and why community consultations are a key portion of moving forward on racial equity? I'll pass that to Ms. Barsoum.

[Heather McPherson, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to all of our witnesses for being here today and sharing this very important conversation with us as we look at Bill C-10.

I will start, if I may, with Ms. Stewart. I want to dig in a little bit about why it is so important that we address the failure to gather race-based data, and why it's so important that these voices of BIPOC people are elevated, and why this bill has an important role to play.

I'm from Edmonton Strathcona, one of the ridings in Edmonton that actually has the very sad story of having many racial incidents over the past several months, with many of them against Black Muslim women.

Could you talk a little about what it would mean to have more Black journalists telling stories? Had more of the content creators been from the BIPOC community, how would that help in terms of combatting some of the increases in racism and white supremacy that we are seeing in our communities, in Edmonton Strathcona, in particular?

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

I wonder whether you are seeing only the tip of the iceberg. I would imagine that victims of intimidation or discrimination may be reluctant to file a complaint or to follow up, for fear of being subjected to further such behaviour as a result of their complaint.

In a regulatory proposal such as Bill C-10, do you think it would be appropriate to add mechanisms to ensure that such complaints are addressed?

It is not just a matter of asking that the legislation ensure representativeness; it must also include an obligation to set up mechanisms that address unfairness, intimidation and discrimination once and for all.

[Lyne Bessette, Liberal, Brome—Missisquoi, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

My thanks to all the witnesses for joining us today.

My first question is for the representatives from the Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA).

Bill C-10 seeks to somewhat level the playing field between the major content distribution companies and our independent Canadian producers.

Ms. Haskett and gentlemen, can you tell us more about the reality and challenges of the small producers you represent?