Thank you, Mr. Skolnik.
Good afternoon, everyone.
My name is Nathalie Guay and I'm the Executive Director of the Coalition for the Diversity of Cultural Expressions.
You've received our seven main proposals for the improvement of Bill C-10. I'll go over them quickly and I'd be happy to hear any comments or questions you may have.
First of all, distribution services provided by online companies need to be included, as was mentioned earlier today, and social media need to be included unambiguously. We understand that the intent is to include social media, and the role they play, in organizing professional content, but we find that the exclusions in Bill C-10 are causing confusion. Our approach would included them from the outset, so that the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, the CRTC, can fully exercise its new powers to collect information from these companies, and determine whether they should to be required to contribute to our ecosystems and how they should do so.
Second, the system ought to be under Canadian control, for our cultural sovereignty, our identity and our social cohesion. The CRTC direction that has generated so much discussion does not apply to undertakings that don't need a licence. The system can be essentially Canadian, in spite of the presence of a number of foreign undertakings.
Third, the act must continue to promote Canadian talent. The wording of paragraph 3(1)(f) under subclause 2(3) of the bill, could mean that Canadian broadcasting undertakings would no longer have any obligation to use Canadian talent, whereas the current wording already allows for factoring in the nature of the undertaking.
Fourth, we think that opportunities for reference to the Governor in Council should be broadened. Bill C-10 assigns many powers to the CRTC. We need to strike a better balance by allowing civil society organizations to have recourse to review a CRTC decision.
Fifth, more robust provisions are required to ensure that original French-language content is created rather than simply translated content or content subtitled in French. For proper service to the cultural diversity, original French-language programming from francophone minorities is needed, as well as programming in indigenous languages.
Sixth, orders should be applicable for a maximum period of time and be subject to amendment, to allow broadcasters and producers to plan their programming and their productions more effectively, and also to ensure that the conditions are reviewed and that all intervenors can have input concerning a service.
Seventh, a move towards the lowest common denominator should be avoided. The wording in paragraph 5(2)(a.1) under subclause 4(1) of the bill, for example, opens the door to undertakings being able to compare themselves to others more easily with a view to obtaining less restrictive conditions. It may be more logical and beneficial to adapt spending requirements to specific undertakings rather than regulate what might appear to look like a minimum applicable to all. We would also like to have a public hearing process for issuing orders.
Two other modifications might also be made. The CRTC should continue to rule on the percentage of programs in various genres; otherwise, programs of national interest, children's programming, dramatic programming and documentaries are likely to be neglected at the expense of less expensive programs like sports and reality shows.
The CRTC must also be able to oversee contractual practices between independent producers and programming undertakings, including the music sector. That proposal from the Yale report should be included, given the size of some of the players that will be subject to CRTC orders and regulations.
Thank you.