Evidence of meeting #48 for Canadian Heritage in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was crtc.
A video is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Anthony Housefather Liberal Mount Royal, QC
I want to come back. I want a clear answer to my question. You have the power, under section 62, to review the cost awards to CMAC on your own motion—both of them. Will you do that, yes or no?
Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
That is a possibility, but I cannot as an individual, chair or not, commit the commission to any decision. That would be a matter to be taken up by the eight sitting members.
Liberal
Anthony Housefather Liberal Mount Royal, QC
Will the commission take it up? Will the commission consider that?
Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
Rachelle, would you like to add...?
I can tell you that we have had a discussion. I honestly cannot say any more.
Liberal
Anthony Housefather Liberal Mount Royal, QC
I think my colleagues and I—I think I can probably speak for all of us—would recommend that you might consider that.
Also, I appreciated your comments to my friend Mr. Julian in terms of had you known, had you known. Now that you know, can we have an understanding that the broader public interest is not furthered by CMAC further making interventions on these matters?
Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
I agree with the statement. No one is guaranteed cost or standing in our proceedings. I think the commission will render decisions at that time on whether their participation is appropriate. You can guess what my personal opinion might be about it.
Liberal
Anthony Housefather Liberal Mount Royal, QC
Thank you. I'm sure we do know that.
The other question I have is about the BPF, the broadcasting participation fund. I know that it operates independently, but in certain ways, it's effectively under the control of the commission, since it follows CRTC processes for reviewing applications for funding, it is dependent on the CRTC to fill its accounts and its funding is awarded for participation in CRTC proceedings, and yet we get only a summary chart at the end of the year identifying which applicants receive money. Are you comfortable with the opacity of the operations of the BPF? Shouldn't they follow the same procedures as the CRTC to conduct a more public process to aid in the review of funding requests and increase the level of disclosure? If so, can you revise the rules at BPF to follow the new rules that you're contemplating for the CRTC?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Anthony, I'm afraid that I cannot allow Mr. Scott to answer that. You have gone about 25 seconds beyond your time in asking the question, so thank you. I'm hoping somebody might pick that up to see if we could get that answer from Mr. Scott.
I'm going to go to Mr. Champoux for two and a half minutes.
Go ahead, please, Martin.
Bloc
Martin Champoux Bloc Drummond, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I want to say I'm very pleased to see that some of my colleagues have addressed the Community Media Advocacy Centre issue. I fully support the interest of my colleague Mr. Housefather, even though I don't have enough the time for it because I want to focus on Bill C-18.
Ms. Frenette, you started to answer my question and I appreciate that. Now I'm going to give you an opportunity to expand your thoughts on the matter since we ran short of time earlier.
My concern is really the eligibility of news businesses. Allow me to explain. The bill provides that a business may be recognized as a "qualified Canadian journalism organization" as defined in the Income tax Act, which establishes certain criteria in that regard. So I want the bill to include criteria guaranteeing a level of journalism quality and credibility of the work eligible organizations do.
Do you think that it's up to the CRTC to address this journalistic integrity issue or that including these criteria directly in the act would simplify matters for it?
General Counsel and Deputy Executive Director, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
Thank you very much for your question, Mr. Champoux.
Clause 27 of the bill sets forth the eligibility criteria for news businesses. In particular, they include the requirement that those businesses produce news content that isn't primarily focused on a particular topic, such as news specific to a particular sector, and the requirement that they regularly employ two or more journalists in Canada who operate in Canada.
Consequently, if the act comes into force, the CRTC will rely on those criteria in determining whether a news business is in fact eligible for bargaining…
Bloc
Martin Champoux Bloc Drummond, QC
So if we want to address this concern of certain industry stakeholders and prevent businesses from adopting somewhat less rigorous journalistic practices…
Bloc
Martin Champoux Bloc Drummond, QC
…we should literally add eligibility criteria to Bill C-18 because the CRTC won't be taking the liberty of enforcing journalistic quality criteria. That's my understanding.
General Counsel and Deputy Executive Director, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
That's essentially correct.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Thanks very much, Martin.
I'll go to Peter Julian for two and half minutes.
NDP
Peter Julian NDP New Westminster—Burnaby, BC
Thanks very much, Madam Chair.
I'm going to give you three rapid-fire questions. Then I'll just let you answer.
First off, for Telus, will you be looking at awarding costs if CRTC does not approve the request to gouge consumers as Telus has done by jacking up its rate? Can consumers be compensated for the money they are now paying Telus for a non-approved rate hike?
Second, in terms of the final offer arbitration and settlements, what is the average amount of time that's it's taken CRTC and what are the longest times that have come?
Finally, if you could follow up on Mr. Housefather's question around the BPF, that would be appreciated as well.
Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
I'll try to do it in reverse order, if I may.
Quickly, on the first, the question is well placed and heard. I would expect that the BPF is likely to follow whatever practice the commission establishes. That's what they did in generally approaching cost awards after they were set up.
We have the same thing with production funds. We approve funds; we don't manage them. It's important that we separate them and that they be truly independent. A lot of these intervenors are critics of the CRTC, and we don't want to play a role where we could be seen to be suppressing a view. Their independence is important.
Last, I would just say that—and I have to be careful on how to word this—we have ways of influencing. For example, if we're directing funds to BPF in the future, we could put conditions on them. I think there are ways in which that challenge could be addressed.
On the second question, on arbitration, I don't have those numbers at hand. Many of these things can be protracted. We can undertake to give you a bit of an analysis.
Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
I would just warn you that we have a few traditional players who like to feud with one another. Some can be quite protractive.
We will look and see if we can give you some constructive numbers.
Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
On the first one, I can't speak to a matter that's in front of us in that way. I will just reiterate what I said: We have services that are tariffed that we have control over—
NDP
Peter Julian NDP New Westminster—Burnaby, BC
I'm sorry, but you do have the power to demand that Telus reimburse consumers. That is one of your tools.
Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
It's not that simple.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Thank you, Peter. You have ended this question.
I'm going to ask the committee to give me some instructions here. We have two more questions; one is for the Conservatives and one for the Liberals. They are five minutes each. That's going to be 10 minutes. We are now at two o'clock and we need to move to the minister. We need time to suspend and get the minister to be checked, etc. I would like to end the questions now. I'm sorry. I would like to suspend the meeting so that we can get the minister and his department miked. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Scott, for coming and getting these rapid-fire questions.