Thank you.
I'd like to thank the committee for the opportunity to appear from here in Treaty 4 territory.
I'd like to state for the record that I am not employed by nor am I on contract to any company or person asking me to advance the perspective I will share with you today.
I spent almost 10 years as a CRTC commissioner, initially as a part-timer, then as regional commissioner for Alberta and the Northwest Territories and finally, for four years, as vice-chair of telecommunications. I served on dozens of public panels and was involved in thousands of decisions. I met with and heard the views of people involved in Canada's creative sector and became familiar with their structures, their needs and the world that the CRTC created for them.
The Canadian film and television industry has just enjoyed a decade of remarkable prosperity. According to the Canadian Media Producers Association, it was a $5.8-billion industry in 2012. That was a year in which many groups within the industry were lobbying for the CRTC to take action for fear of the negative impact that they were convinced Netflix would have. This was similar to the arguments made in previous years: essentially, that the development of streaming on the Internet would devastate Canada's creative sector and that change was bad.
However, that is not what happened. By the last pre-COVID year, 2019, also according to the CMPA, the industry grew to become a $9.5-billion industry. That's 80% growth, and it didn't happen because of something the CRTC did. It happened because the CRTC paid attention to the evidence, and the evidence indicated that the creative film and television industry was prospering like it never had before. More people than ever were finding work in that sector.
There was little evidence to suggest that the industry would be better off if the CRTC tried to imprison the 21st century within a 20th century structure called the Broadcasting Act. In fact, some of us felt it was important that we make it clear that unless there was evidence of economic decline, we had no intention of intervening. The objectives of the Broadcasting Act were being met, and it was clear that at a time of dynamic and significant disruption innovation would be required. Any hint of initiating a lengthy regulatory process with uncertain outcomes was only going to create uncertainty, and uncertainty suppresses investment. When investment is suppressed, innovation stops, and Canada's creative sector suffers.
These are the likely unintended consequences of Bill C-11, which has left far too many definitions and determinations up to a CRTC that is not designed to make them. It is unfortunate that the government hasn't taken the opportunity suggested by the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review Panel to create an entirely new Canadian communications act.
If that had been done and the CRTC had been replaced with a new governing body built around the Internet and the issues of primary interest to Canadians—access, affordability and the freedom to watch what they want, when they want it, and how they want it—Canada would have been much better prepared to flourish creatively in the 21st century, but there's nothing to be done about that now, so I'm here today to focus on one suggestion, made recently in a Globe and Mail op-ed co-authored by me and former CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein.
A lot of risk to investment and innovation can be mitigated and a lot of uncertainty can be avoided if you were to just make it clear in the legislation that it applies only to streaming companies with annual Canadian revenues of $150 million or more. The CRTC could then debate with them whether they are reinvesting in Canada and its cultural and industrial goals in an appropriate fashion. In other words, if the government's goal is to, as was initially described, “get money from web giants”, then go get the money from web giants and make it clear that everything else will be left alone to continue the innovation and investment that have defined Canada's creative sector in the past decade.
Thank you very much.