Canadian Heritage Committee on Oct. 1st, 2025

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Mr. Waugh, that's your time.

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon South, SK]

Thank you.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

We will now move over to Mr. Ntumba.

[Bienvenu-Olivier Ntumba, Liberal, Mont-Saint-Bruno—L’Acadie, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Let's go back to the implementation and enforcement of the Online Streaming Act.

What mechanisms will be put in place to address non-compliance by online platforms?

[Scott Hutton]

As my colleague Mr. Shortliffe said earlier, at this time, it is a bit too early for us to be able to answer your question about how we ensure online platforms' compliance.

In accordance with our work plan, we are in the process of putting in place all the policies that the platforms will have to comply with and defining all the industry needs they will have to meet. We look at the definition of Canadian content, we ensure a fair market and we also look at audio content. Our job is to put in place the measures that platforms will have to comply with, but we then also have to make sure that they do indeed meet those objectives. However, we're not there yet.

[Bienvenu-Olivier Ntumba, Liberal, Mont-Saint-Bruno—L’Acadie, QC]

I appreciate that.

Do you want to add anything, Mr. Shortliffe?

[Scott Shortliffe]

Yes, I would like to add a couple of quick comments, which do not necessarily apply to this company in particular.

Passing this bill gives us new tools. If a platform breaks our rules, we have the power to request the necessary information or data. In some cases, monetary penalties can be imposed. We have tools we can use if a party does not comply with our rules.

[Bienvenu-Olivier Ntumba, Liberal, Mont-Saint-Bruno—L’Acadie, QC]

How do your new requirements support local media?

I want to come back to local media because that's still an important issue in the regions. You've done a series of consultations, which is very good. In anticipation of your final decisions at the end of these consultations, how do you plan to make room for local media or make them shine?

For us in the regions, this issue is of the utmost importance.

[Scott Hutton]

Those are precisely the questions we ask ourselves at all our public hearings, whether the discussion involves music or other elements. Earlier, I mentioned the development of Canadian content and the funds allocated to it. Those funds are available in every market across the country. Every radio station invests in local production.

Naturally, we were wondering how to consider this aspect in the era of digital systems. If we continue to support the organizations that benefit from those funds, we will potentially be able to maintain these very specific efforts for local content across the country.

[Bienvenu-Olivier Ntumba, Liberal, Mont-Saint-Bruno—L’Acadie, QC]

There are current issues across Canada, from east to west. I'm thinking in particular of the place of the francophone minority outside Quebec.

While remaining in your neutral position, can you tell us whether the CRTC has planned to promote and highlight the French content of local media outside Quebec over the next month or weeks?

[Scott Hutton]

Just today, our consultation committee held an important meeting, as I mentioned to one of your colleagues. We work very closely with the communities, be they producers representing people in television, journalists or people in the music or community radio world. All those people are very active with us and we try to consult them as much as possible so that we can make informed decisions in our proceedings to support them.

There are different communities across the country—either anglophones in Quebec or francophones outside Quebec. Those people participate fully in the consultations, and we also support them in our decisions. The funds we have set up support programming designed by and for these communities.

[Bienvenu-Olivier Ntumba, Liberal, Mont-Saint-Bruno—L’Acadie, QC]

I have met with people from a number of organizations who invited me, including the Black Screen Office.

What steps is your organization taking to increase the visibility of minority or racialized communities?

[Scott Hutton]

As you know, we are an administrative tribunal.

We are working very hard to ensure that it is easy to interact with the CRTC and share views with it.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Thank you very much.

We will move to Mr. Diotte for five minutes, and then to Mr. Champoux.

[Kerry Diotte, Conservative, Edmonton Griesbach, AB]

Thank you.

I'd like to return once again to the issue of diversity, specifically diversity of opinion. What is the CRTC doing specifically to ensure Canadians are getting a diversity of opinion in the media they're exposed to?

[Vicky Eatrides]

Perhaps I could start off and then turn things over to our head of broadcasting.

I will just address a couple of points. One is that, as part of the implementation of the new legislation, we are looking at the issue of how we can increase diversity. Another thing I would say is that, through all of the licensing decisions we make in broadcasting, which my colleague could speak about, we do ensure that we are licensing a number of different broadcasters that have diversity of views and perspectives. We could provide more detail.

[Kerry Diotte, Conservative, Edmonton Griesbach, AB]

Sure. A bit more is good.

[Scott Shortliffe]

We have a couple of different lenses when we approach licensing decisions. One of them is that when someone approaches or looks for a licence, we look at the market and make sure there is enough economic room in the market. We also try to emphasize that there should be diversity of opinion. Now, in this case, I'm talking about radio, because there's only so much spectrum.

To look at television services, we license a vast variety of television services. We also permit a large number of foreign services to broadcast in Canada that present a wide variety of points of view. I think we pride ourselves on trying to make sure that Canadians have access to as many different opinions as possible.

We also have journalistic codes and accessibility codes, which are then administered by the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council. When there are complaints about viewpoints being shut down, there is somewhere to take those complaints.

We're trying to build a system that has as much diversity of opinion in it as possible.

[Kerry Diotte, Conservative, Edmonton Griesbach, AB]

Thanks for that.

You have a lot of public consultations, obviously. You've talked about it. Do you have any plans to hold consultations on fair representation of diverse opinions in Canadian radio and TV? Is there anything coming up?

[Scott Shortliffe]

I have to be a little coy here because, as a tribunal, until we've announced something publicly, we don't speak about what our future plans are.

What I can say—and we've expressed this in the past—is that when we finish this major policy work, for which we have a bit of the end in sight, that does not mean all of our work is done. There are a number of issues we need to follow up on. Certainly, we have more questions to answer. There, unfortunately, I have to be a bit coy and stop, but I can say that the question of fair representation in a different media system is obviously an important one for the future.

[Kerry Diotte, Conservative, Edmonton Griesbach, AB]

Thank you.

Does the CRTC currently monitor online and broadcast content for hate speech?

[Scott Shortliffe]

We operate on a complaint basis. There are two kinds of things. When we issue a licence, we don't issue licences to online entities currently, but you have broadcasters. Typically, when we're renewing their licence, we do compliance checks to make sure they've met their requirements, which can happen every couple of years. The other thing we do is respond to public complaints, usually around licence renewal time. If someone comes to say there has been a problem with content on, say, a radio station, either we will look at that issue at licence renewal time or, if we get enough complaints and it's serious enough, we can obviously do it off-cycle.

We don't do it on a regular basis. I don't have staff who sit there monitoring everybody. At the same time, we try to make sure we are responsive and responsible in dealing with any issues that are brought to us.

[Vicky Eatrides]

I'd like to add something very briefly and come back to something we talked about earlier.

There are very formal processes in place. To the extent to which there are concerns about what's being broadcast, if it's through a private broadcaster and the concerns or complaints are about them, that goes through the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council. If it's about a public broadcaster, any concerns or complaints about that content would go through the ombudsperson for that public broadcaster.

[Kerry Diotte, Conservative, Edmonton Griesbach, AB]

Very quickly, what's your definition of hate?

[Scott Shortliffe]

As Vicky was just explaining, because we don't manage those complaints directly, we do not have a definition of hate that we apply. If there is a separate case brought to us, we treat each case on its merits.