Madam Chairperson and honourable members, it is an honour to be able to speak to you today and to address C-11.
For more than 30 years, I was a lawyer with the Department of Justice and held a number of senior positions within that department. One of my most memorable and rewarding experiences was to have worked on the drafting and adoption of the 1991 Broadcasting Act. In the course of that work, I became keenly aware of the policy, constitutional and regulatory issues surrounding broadcasting.
Broadcasting regulation is a regulation born of scarcity. Radio waves were and remain a scarce resource. Initially, few persons could be licensed to broadcast to the public. A limited number of licensees meant that a broadcaster could potentially abuse its communications power to manipulate and abuse the public opinion. This, in turn, led to a form of comprehensive broadcasting regulation.
As the carrying capacity of cable increased over the years, the scarcity argument for broadcasting regulation weakened. It was our belief, back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, that in a 500-channel universe, comprehensive broadcasting regulation would no longer be necessary.
We now live in the Internet age. The Internet is not limited to 500 channels. It has virtually unlimited capacity to permit every form of communication and permit any member of the public to hear an extraordinary diversity of voices. Canadians operate 160,000 channels on YouTube alone. There is no scarcity on the Internet.
Given the bounty of content on the Internet, it is both counterintuitive and, frankly, shocking to witness not the dismemberment of the broadcasting regulation but its extension to the whole of the Internet.
I want to briefly make four points.
First, the impulse to use the Broadcasting Act to regulate the Internet is grounded in concerns of protecting an existing industry. It has no justification in terms of protecting broader public interests.
Second, C-11 lacks a foundation in Canadian constitutional law. Internet streaming services do not transmit to the public by radio waves, nor do they operate telecommunications facilities across provincial boundaries. They and their audiences are the clients of telecommunications common carriers, which are subject to federal regulation. Netflix, for instance, in this case is no more a federal undertaking than a law firm such as McCarthy Tétrault or a chain store like Canadian Tire, both of which rely extensively on telecommunications services.
The third point is that the mere fact that some Internet services compete with traditional broadcasters is not a justification to extend federal regulation over Internet services. Looked at historically, successive forms of delivering popular culture have had their moment in the sun. There has been a progression from vaudeville to movies to radio to television to the Internet. What we see at play today is not some demonic plot by Internet interlopers. What we see is the creative destruction of capitalism. C-11 is not a solution to the problems of broadcasters, but it is an active harm to those who create and disseminate content on the Internet.
Fourth, and lastly, the issues that underlie C-11 are not the ones that can be resolved through regulations. They are largely questions of money. I believe C-11 should be focused on ensuring that the web giants contribute to Canadian programming, not on regulating them.
Thank you. I look forward to your questions.