Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and members of the committee.
My name is Luc Perreault, and I am a strategic adviser at the Stingray Group, a member of the Independent Broadcast Group, or IBG.
Joining me is Joel Fortune, legal counsel at IBG.
Our group represents 12 independent broadcasting undertakings, which are not affiliated with any of Canada's big cable companies or satellite-television distributors.
Our membership is made up of radio and television broadcasters who are also active throughout the digital media sphere. We provide Canadians with wide-ranging content, from local news, music, weather forecasts and alerts to documentaries, magazine programs, lifestyle programming, dramatic series and sports.
We provide that content in English, French, indigenous languages and 25 third languages spoken in Canada today.
In many ways, independent broadcasters represent Canada's diversity. Collectively, they are major employers in the media sector. We estimate that 40% of all employees in the broadcasting sector work for independent broadcasters. That is equivalent to thousands of jobs and, according to a 2019 study, more than $2.5 billion in direct and indirect economic activity.
Bill C-10 would update the Broadcasting Act to take into account the realities of the Internet. It's critical to get this right. However, the bill has a glaring gap because it fails to regulate Internet-based distribution. Mr. Fortune will now speak to that.