Pablo Rodriguez Liberal
This bill has received Royal Assent and is, or will soon become, law.
This is from the published bill. The Library of Parliament has also written a full legislative summary of the bill.
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) specify that the Act does not apply in respect of programs uploaded to an online undertaking that provides a social media service by a user of the service, unless the programs are prescribed by regulation;
(c) update the broadcasting policy for Canada set out in section 3 of the Act by, among other things, providing that the Canadian broadcasting system should
(i) serve the needs and interests of all Canadians, including Canadians from Black or other racialized communities and Canadians of diverse ethnocultural backgrounds, socio-economic statuses, abilities and disabilities, sexual orientations, gender identities and expressions, and ages, and
(ii) provide opportunities to Indigenous persons, programming that reflects Indigenous cultures and that is in Indigenous languages, and programming that is accessible without barriers to persons with disabilities;
(d) enhance the vitality of official language minority communities in Canada and foster the full recognition and use of both English and French in Canadian society, including by supporting the production and broadcasting of original programs in both languages;
(e) 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 English, French and Indigenous language broadcasting and the different conditions under which broadcasting undertakings that provide English, French or Indigenous language programming operate,
(ii) takes into account, among other things, the nature and diversity of the services provided by broadcasting undertakings,
(iii) ensures that any broadcasting undertaking that cannot make maximum or predominant use of Canadian creative and other human resources in the creation, production and presentation of programming contributes to those Canadian resources in an equitable manner,
(iv) promotes innovation and is readily adaptable toscientific and technological change,
(v) facilitates the provision to Canadians of Canadian programs in both official languages, including those created and produced by official language minority communities in Canada, as well as Canadian programs in Indigenous languages,
(vi) facilitates the provision of programs that are accessible without barriers to persons with disabilities,
(vii) facilitates the provision to Canadians of programs created and produced by members of Black or other racialized communities,
(viii) protects the privacy of individuals who aremembers of the audience of programs broadcast, and
(ix) takes into account the variety of broadcasting undertakings to which the Act applies and avoids imposing obligations on any class of broadcasting undertakings if that imposition will not contribute in a material manner to the implementation of the broadcasting policy;
(f) amend the procedure relating to the issuance by the Governor in Council of policy directions to the Commission;
(g) 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;
(h) provide the Commission with the power to require that persons carrying on broadcasting undertakings make expenditures to support the Canadian broadcasting system;
(i) 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;
(j) 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;
(k) 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;
(l) 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
(m) 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.
All sorts of information on this bill is available at LEGISinfo, an excellent resource from the Library of Parliament. You can also read the full text of the bill.
Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
On Bill C‑11, I mentioned earlier that it would take about two years to implement.
With Bill C‑18, it's harder to say.
There's the development of regulations as a statutory instrument and the timing of that is not in our control because it has to go through justice. I can't easily estimate how long it will take to do the regulations that we need to do to establish the framework. Bill C-18 is very new and we're just getting our heads around it.
Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
As I said with regard to Bill C-11, the necessity is that we need modern tools. The entire broadcasting ecosystem, if you will, has changed. The traditional model, if you wish, is a walled garden. You can come into the garden and here are the rules for you to participate. That's no longer the case because there are a whole bunch of platforms. They are wonderful and are offering Canadians a plethora of content, which they're consuming with vigour, but we've now created these asymmetries. We don't have the tools to address that in the changing marketplace.
On remuneration, it is a question that news is the most costly element of broadcasters' productions. It is a challenge, as you all know, for the print press. Their advertising revenues have largely gone to those platforms. The government clearly is seeking a way of ensuring that they receive remuneration for it. Our role will be to establish the regulatory framework to allow that to happen, hopefully, through commercial negotiations.
Lisa Hepfner Liberal Hamilton Mountain, ON
Rachael Thomas Conservative Lethbridge, AB
Mr. Scott, I'm just going to continue here.
Bill C-11 does, in fact, leave user-generated content open to being regulated by the CRTC. I recognize that there have been arguments against this. However, Dr. Michael Geist has said, “The indisputable reality is that the net result of those provisions is that user generated content is covered by the bill.”
Jeanette Patell from YouTube Canada has said, per The Canadian Press, “the draft law's wording gives the broadcast regulator”—in other words, you—“scope to oversee everyday videos posted for other users to watch.”
Scott Benzie from Digital First Canada has said, per the National Post, “while the government says the legislation will not cover digital first creators, ‘the bill clearly captures them.’”
All these individuals are individual users generating content. It would appear that the bill does or could, in fact, capture them. Is that correct?
Rachael Thomas Conservative Lethbridge, AB
Are you comfortable with the amount of discretionary power that would be put in your hands with regard to Bill C-11 and regulating programming?
Rachael Thomas Conservative Lethbridge, AB
Okay, so you would take the definition that exists in the current Broadcasting Act and apply it to Bill C-11.
Rachael Thomas Conservative Lethbridge, AB
Thank you.
On the topic of Bill C-11, I see that part of what's in front of us with regard to these estimates is an increase in spending allowance of 5.5% in order to bring amendments into play with regard to the Broadcasting Act.
Do you find it odd that the terms “program” and “programming”, which give the CRTC the ability to regulate of course, are not clearly defined in Bill C-11?
Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
Financially, the government gave us two years of funding to implement Bill C-10, now BillC-11, to do the preparatory work. We've had the first year's funding and will receive the second year's funding shortly, I anticipate, and that is adequate to do the preparatory work. Thereafter, there will need to be a review of the precise budgetary requirements, but it will largely get collected from the fee-payers. That's why I described the regime.
So, yes, we have the necessary funding to do the work we must do right now. I don't know if I've answered your question well.
Peter Julian NDP New Westminster—Burnaby, BC
We'll hold you to it.
In financial terms—because we are talking about the estimates—what does this mean for the CRTC, from what you have looked at so far? As part of that question, you mentioned launching public consultations on Bill C-11. What would that mean in terms of the CRTC's reaching out to Canadians?
Peter Julian NDP New Westminster—Burnaby, BC
Thank you.
We're talking about Bill C-11. In terms of the timelines, you have referred to it potentially taking a couple of years.
Chief of Consumer, Research and Communications, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
We also need to ensure verification.
Certainly the companies are very focused on data. Is that data going to be passed on? Naturally, one of our big requests is to ensure that Bill C‑11 gives us the tools to go and get this data. In cases where there is a compliance issue, we must have a mechanism that allows us to impose administrative penalties.
Martin Champoux Bloc Drummond, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I thank the witnesses for being here today.
Mr. Scott, I will continue in the same vein as my colleague Mr. Housefather.
You were saying that the CRTC could be regulating digital media right now, but that it doesn't.
Does Bill C‑11, as presented today, give you more powers or does it limit the powers you would have to regulate the internet?
Anthony Housefather Liberal Mount Royal, QC
Thank you very much.
Let me come to you on Bill C-11 for a second, which was previously Bill C-10. There have been a number of people commenting in various places that somehow this bill and then the CRTC would choose to regulate social media posts of non-commercial, individual users.
Could you clarify whether the CRTC has that nefarious intention?
John Nater Conservative Perth—Wellington, ON
Thank you for that.
You mentioned policy direction from the government. In advance of Bill C-10—well, I guess Bill C-10 never did pass, but in advance of the committee's discussions of it, there was a policy directive issued. I just want to confirm that you have not yet received a policy directive from the minister in relation to Bill C-11.
John Nater Conservative Perth—Wellington, ON
I think someone promised that in the last election. I can't remember who.
Moving on, the CRTC's 2022-23 departmental plan gave some foresight into the work that it would be undertaking in preparation for Bill C-11. Again, you've noted some of that, such as preparing for public consultations. Where some of our concerns lie is that CBC licence renewal is at 17 months, for example. It's been over 500 days now since the three-digit suicide-prevention line was unanimously adopted in parliament.
I'm concerned about where the CRTC is in terms of its staffing, its capability, its competency, to implement Bill C-11 first, and then Bill C-18. I'm curious as to what timeline you see from the time that Bill C‑11 is passed and receives royal assent to when it is fully implemented. What's the best case scenario from the CRTC to have that fully implemented?