Good afternoon, everyone.
We focused on four major issues. They are: reducing obstacles to access to advanced telecommunications networks for all Canadians; the best ways to support the creation, production and discoverability of Canadian content; the best way to protect privacy and improve the rights of consumers in the digital environment; and finally, renewing the institutional framework that governs the communications sector.
We made a number of recommendations to address these issues. First, we propose a new legislative model that would make the Broadcasting Act applicable to all media communications entities, including services like Netflix, Spotify and Apple TV+. This new model would also establish obligations for online entities, Canadian or not. As a result, they would be required to play a role in supporting the country's cultural policy.
Under our proposal, media entities that derive benefits from the Canadian market through the advertising revenue or subscription fees they receive and the personal information they gather, must contribute to the creation, production and discoverability of Canadian content.
In a world of unlimited choices and voices, CBC/Radio-Canada remains an indispensable cultural institution and a platform for Canada's stories and diversity, at home and abroad. We have rethought the role of CBC/Radio-Canada as a true public media institution oriented first and foremost to public service and free from the commercial pressures that go hand-in-hand with a dependence on advertising revenue.
We have designed our recommendations so as to encourage the institution of CBC/Radio-Canada to take more creative risks, to better represent Canada's diversity, including indigenous peoples and the two official language communities, and to increase its responsibility for local and national news, and international news from a Canadian perspective.
To support those objectives, we recommend that the federal government be required to commit funding to CBC/Radio-Canada for at least five years, together with clear commitments as to the delivery of the mandate.
In parallel, we further recommend that CBC/Radio-Canada gradually eliminate advertising on all platforms over the next five years, starting with news content. More generally, we recognize that Canada's traditional news media sector is in crisis. The sector is experiencing financial difficulties, but there is more. The proliferation of fake news and disinformation is threatening the democracies of the world. The best defence against that situation is access to reliable, high-quality sources of news.
To strengthen the Canadian news sector, we are proposing a series of recommendations that will help to ensure financial stability, while preserving journalistic independence and diversity. In addition, we are recommending a number of measures to protect against harmful content, threats to privacy and the impact of big data on every dimension of our personal, professional, public and political lives. These global threats are becoming more and more prevalent.
We also recommend enshrining in the act the right to a free and open Internet, providing legitimate content to which users have access in all places and at all times. This proposal is crucial to guarantee freedom of expression and to keep democracy healthy and strong.