Evidence of meeting #39 for Canadian Heritage in the 41st Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was crtc.
A video is available from Parliament.
NDP
Chairperson, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
This is our new code.
Conservative
Conservative
Jim Hillyer Conservative Lethbridge, AB
Thank you.
In your presentation, you said that part of the role of the CRTC is to protect consumers and maintain reasonable pricing. I know that doesn't mean you want to regulate prices and you still want to allow for competition, so is there anything, in your view, that the CRTC can do—because you also talked about consumers needing to have proper information to be protected—to combat deceptive pricing? Cellphone companies will say, “This is the price”, and then you get your bill and it's $20 higher because of this hidden fee and that hidden fee. I don't know if that's anything the CRTC can address or not.
Chairperson, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
There's an aspect of it we can deal with, but when you talk about deceptive pricing or deceptive advertising, that's very much the Competition Bureau, because we're talking about activities that are unauthorized.
What I was talking about is that for a healthy marketplace, yes, you need players that can compete fairly against each other, but you also need an empowered and informed consumer. That's why we're very much looking for a bit more clarity—it's in our three-year plan—for instance, in the wireless market. If a consumer decides to buy a cellphone package, what are that person's rights or obligations under the contract?
At the beginning, there's a duty. The CRTC is not there to hold consumers' hands, but I do think we have a role to give them tools, whether it's information through a better and less dense website or through standards that we require of cellphone companies to have a bit more clarity in their contractual relationships with cellphone subscribers.
When you talk about more deception and trying to fool people, that falls into another domain. It's not our bailiwick.
Conservative
Jim Hillyer Conservative Lethbridge, AB
Okay.
The other question I have is generally about the mandate of the CRTC. Our government gave direction for the CRTC to regulate lightly, or maybe to put it another way, to not go beyond the scope of their mandate. How do you plan on continuing to implement this request?
Chairperson, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
On policy direction, in a sense, we have a mandate under the Telecommunications Act. We're at arm's length, but it doesn't mean you can't touch. The legislation actually provides an opportunity to do policy directions, and it's tabled in front of the House and the Senate for people to comment on. The policy direction is there.
For all the activities we do in telecommunications, we put that filter on them. It doesn't say not to regulate; it says only to regulate to the extent necessary to achieve the objectives of the act. I'm summarizing it in extreme terms, but it's essentially that. We apply it in every decision at commission meetings. When the staff come with recommendations, they put that filter on the recommendations, in a sense, on how we apply it, and we explain as well in our decisions why we came to a particular conclusion of acting or not acting in the way the policy direction requires us to act.
Conservative
Jim Hillyer Conservative Lethbridge, AB
I have a question that I think addresses a lot of the different goals you've talked about. A company that owns a radio station in my riding is requesting a licence for another station. What are some of the factors that are considered when determining whether or not a radio station can get a licence?
Chairperson, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
It depends on what kind of radio station they're asking for. It depends on the state of the market, how competitive it is, and who else is in there.
Let's assume that somebody has applied for a licence and we are at a hearing. We will look first of all at what format they're providing, what other players are in the market, and whether that format might unduly impact other people in that marketplace. You don't want, by adding voices all the time, to weaken the other players, because they do have a public service obligation. They provide news and information.
The hearing basically involves a group of commissioners looking at whether there is room in that market and whether it will add diversity of voices. As you know, radio stations add a news voice to the marketplace. For instance, if you're in a place where there is no radio station at all, that's something that we encourage in particular, because it's a service to the community. It really depends on the circumstances when we analyze that particular area.
I am concerned—and I've heard this from radio broadcasters—about the danger of over-licensing given markets that may actually affect them in a way. Radio stations do a great job. They're very local. They're very much in the community to participate in charity events, and we have to be careful that we're not putting in so much competition that they're not giving back those obligations to their given community. We're very careful about not over-licensing. On the other hand, we also don't want to create such protection that new players can't enter the market.
NDP
Matthew Dubé NDP Chambly—Borduas, QC
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Blais, thank you again for being here.
My colleague, Mr. Coderre, addressed this issue earlier, but I would like to talk a little more about your mandate, particularly about Canadian content and official languages.
In March 2012, there was a drop in the requirements for Canadian content for general broadcasting. These requirements dropped from 60% to 55%. It doesn't seem like a lot, but since we are so close to the United States, which produces an enormous amount of cultural content that they share with us, I think a drop could have consequences.
This decision was recent but, still, a few months have passed. Has there been any kind of assessment of the consequences, positive or negative, that this decision might have had, particularly on the presence of French and Canadian content?
Chairperson, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
If you are talking about the French language market in Quebec specifically, it is important to say that Canadian content in the French Quebec market has never been a huge concern because the market forces mean that French broadcasters in Quebec far exceed the regulatory standards. That is entirely positive.
One part of our mandate is to grant broadcasting licences, but we also have to carry out monitoring under the act. That is why we produce an annual report, because it enables us to see the impacts of our decisions on the industry. Licences are valid for a certain period of time. Therefore, a meeting is always planned to evaluate the effect on the broadcasting market and to ensure that we have Canadian content, in French or English, depending on the circumstances.
NDP
Matthew Dubé NDP Chambly—Borduas, QC
I am wondering about that. We know that the regulatory requirements provide that we have the same percentage for English content and French content. I think it is fair to say that the reality of both languages is very different, both in Quebec and in any other province.
Don't you think that this might lead to problems, especially outside Quebec, with respect to the representation of French Canadian content? Would the percentage be the same as the English content?
Chairperson, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
Under the act, we are required to look at the reality, because it acknowledges that there is a difference between the English and French markets. The French market is more particular because there are francophones in minority situations. So the difference is greater. That is part of what we are looking at.
And that is why I mentioned earlier that there is less of a problem in Quebec because we over-produce there. Outside Quebec, we will look at CBC's situation when its licences are renewed soon. We will try to find out what services there are for francophone communities in minority situations to determine where things stand.
NDP
Matthew Dubé NDP Chambly—Borduas, QC
With respect to CBC and the percentage of Canadian or French content, one of the nice things provided by the Crown corporation, is the assurance that a public broadcaster will provide local content, francophone content in this case, which is the issue I'm talking about.
In this respect, do you think that, to maintain these commitments in the act, it is important to have that presence, especially in places like eastern Ontario?
Chairperson, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
I need to be careful because the CBC licence renewal is before us. What I can say, since it is a public document, is that our consultation notice shed light on the service to francophone communities in minority situations in particular. We are going to make sure that their points of view are addressed in the hearing. It is our obligation, not only under the Official Languages Act, but also under our own act, the Broadcasting Act. We will make sure that these communities have the opportunity to have their points of view heard. Having said that, we had already targeted this as an issue that we will study in November.
NDP
Matthew Dubé NDP Chambly—Borduas, QC
I would like to ask you another question. I would like to come back to this change in the requirements relating to the percentage of Canadian content. In your earlier responses to various colleagues, you mentioned a reduction in regulations. But we could say that the Canadian content requirement is in some way a regulation. If, in the future, the intent of the CRTC's mandate is to reduce regulation, will you also ensure that strong regulations are kept in place to preserve Canadian content?
Chairperson, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
Reduction doesn't mean elimination. We need to balance everything, which is difficult. That is the decision that the board makes. The staff conducting these studies are experienced and very professional. We cannot decide everything based on market forces because we are not always dealing with consumer issues. The issues are sometimes citizen-related, or have to do with the offer or creation. The presence of Canadian content and choices in our broadcasting system is more of a citizenship or creation issue than a strictly consumer-related issue.
Conservative
Paul Calandra Conservative Oak Ridges—Markham, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Chairman Blais. I appreciate you appearing before us and I congratulate you on your appointment.
Let me apologize that you had to leave us for a short period, but we want to make sure you can speak to the issues we brought you here to speak on. In your speech you talked about Barbara Motzney, your chief consumer officer. Could you expand a little bit on what role you expect her to play and what her mandate will be?
Chairperson, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
Right. To be fair, she only started on Monday. On the vision and the mandate I've given her, it's like being in the theatre: there's always a short intermission between the first act and second act.
I've asked Barbara, in that new role, to apply a consumer lens to everything we do. Obviously, when we have an application in front of us, whether it's telecom or broadcasting, it's to formally put a lens on it.
We already do it, by the way. I think colleagues of yours will be interested to know that in terms of official language minority, we always apply an official language minority lens to anything that's brought in front of us. In the same way, we will apply a consumer lens in those formal proceedings.
Beyond that, it's ensuring that our website and our outreach to Canadians include a preoccupation with them as consumers. Our research plans—because we do spend some research money to look at what's impacting the market—would do that. It's very much applying in a holistic and probably in a matrix way the consumer lens to everything we do, formally. It's not that we weren't doing it before, but I want it to be systematic.
Conservative
Paul Calandra Conservative Oak Ridges—Markham, ON
The Broadcasting Act stipulates that the Canadian broadcasting system comprises public, private, and community elements. Could you expand a bit on what role you see for the community element?
