Which authorities are we talking about?
First is the ability to set the terms of carriage, if necessary, for certain designated services. This could include, for example, APTN or TV5 Unis, or other existing 9(1)(h) services that are now made available to Canadians due to CRTC rules. Without CRTC intervention, these services would not exist today.
Second, the CRTC should have a general authority to create terms of service that relate to the distribution of online services and that go beyond individual services, such as APTN or TV5. For example, that authority could be used to ensure that local television services are offered in their own local markets by certain online services.
Third, the CRTC should have the authority to engage in dispute resolution involving online services and access to online distribution platforms. They exercise that authority today for cable and satellite distribution, and Internet distribution could well replace them in the future. The CRTC's powers should keep pace.
We have submitted our proposed amendments to the committee. They are all directed to this issue of distribution and are meant, at heart, to preserve the CRTC's authority to oversee certain business-to-business relationships that arise between programming services and distributors to preserve the competitiveness of our market, its openness to Canadian services and the advancement of broadcasting policy objectives.