I do not share these concerns. The Broadcasting Act already gives the CRTC full discretion, and more importantly, requires it to deal only with activities that have a demonstrable impact on the achievement of Canadian broadcasting policy. In the past, the CRTC has used the current section 9(4) of the Broadcasting Act to avoid regulating precisely what it did not have to regulate, to the extent that it did not affect the achievement of the policy.
It seems to me that we could just as easily have been content with this approach, which, in my view, offers the best safeguards to ensure that we do not regulate services that have no demonstrable impact on the achievement of the objectives of Canadian broadcasting policy.
If we had avoided introducing what has been introduced in Bill C‑11, I think we would have a much clearer law.