Before 2017, when the independent local news fund was created, there was—on paper, at least—supposed to be $150 million spent across the country on community TV, but it's being spent on a handful of big-city stations because all the small ones had been closed. We've been asking for a community access media fund that communities themselves could apply to and then run community TV stations on the community radio model, by not-for-profit, locally accountable boards of directors.
We've reapplied to certify an independent production fund for that purpose at this time.
We've recommended that if the merger does go through, instead of all of the money being pocketed by cable companies or moved around with a lack of public scrutiny—because none the data is ever published; the CRTC keeps it—that a portion, at least, be put into this fund to ensure that we can roll out community TV in communities that have lost it.