As you heard, my name is Freya Zaltz. I'm the regulatory affairs director for the National Campus and Community Radio Association. I also represent two additional associations, l'Association des radiodiffuseurs communautaires du Québec and l'Alliance des radios communautaires du Canada. These associations work to ensure stability and support for non-profit campus and community radio stations, and the long-term growth and effectiveness of the sector. Going forward, I will refer to the sector and the stations as C and C for campus and community. Together, the associations represent about 90% of the Canadian C and C sector, or 165 radio stations.
I'd like to tell the committee a little about the sector and how its stations are affected by copyright tariffs. I'll also emphasize the continuing importance of paragraph 68.1(1)(b) of the Copyright Act, which provides C and C stations with certainty and protection from some tariff increases that could impact their financial viability.
C and C radio stations reflect the diversity of the communities they serve. They are community owned, operated, managed and controlled, and some or all of their programming is produced by community volunteers. Being tied to communities so directly means that C and C stations produce programming that is rich in local information and reflection. They also present a wide variety of community perspectives, especially under-represented voices and content.
C and C stations in Canada provide their communities with access to local programming in more than 65 languages, including a number of indigenous languages. They provide an array of locally produced programming that reflects the linguistic duality of Canada and meets the needs of both French and English linguistic minority communities. They provide important community services.
The Canadian music industry and the public derive great benefit from the support that C and C broadcasters provide to Canadian artists as a result of their mandate to provide diverse content and exposure for new artists. Many successful Canadian artists owe their start to C and C radio. Because these stations focus on achieving their mandate rather than on generating profit, they can afford to take the risk of playing works by unknown artists who otherwise lack radio exposure.
One of the sector's concerns is ensuring that paragraph 68.1(1)(b) of the Copyright Act is preserved when the act is amended. That paragraph limits to $100 per year the fee that non-commercial radio stations must pay to the copyright collective Re:Sound for the rights associated with communicating to the public by telecommunication performers' performances of music works or sound recordings embodying such performers' performances within Re:Sound's repertoire, in other words, neighbouring rights.
Keeping that tariff and all others low is very important to stations in the C and C sector. Because they are non-profit, they have no stable sources of operational funding, and are usually under severe financial constraints. Some stations have tiny budgets, as small as $5,000 per year, and no paid staff whatsoever. Many already struggle to pay their expenses, and any additional tariff obligations, not matter how small, make them more vulnerable to closure due to insolvency.
Also, applicable tariffs have been steadily increasing in number and cost, and the tariff addressed by paragraph 68.1(1)(b) is only one of presently five tariffs that C and C stations must pay annually. This increase is due in part to listeners' expectations that they'll be able to access C and C stations' content via multiple platforms, including over the Internet. The costs of providing these services over multiple platforms, including the associated copyright tariffs, make it increasingly difficult for C and C stations to remain solvent.
In that vein, existing exceptions for ephemeral and internal copies should be retained for non-commercial uses, since non-profit broadcasters do not benefit financially from the use of copyrighted material.
Also, participating in Copyright Board proceedings and effective negotiations with copyright collectives requires resources and legal expertise, and for financial reasons the C and C sector has limited capability in these respects.
It would, therefore, help the associations to simplify the board's procedures where possible. The board's 2013 Re:Sound tariff 8 decision suggests that it understands non-profit users' financial limitations perhaps better than the copyright collectives do, so moving to a private agreement model is not necessarily in the association's best interests.
The C and C sector understands that copyright tariffs are intended to compensate copyright holders for their use of the work. Since C and C stations don't derive any profit from such use, and since, instead, their goal is to increase the exposure and further the careers of Canadian and emerging artists, they believe there's value to copyright holders in keeping tariffs low for the C and C sector.
The associations, therefore, appreciate the protection that paragraph 68.1(1)(b) provides by limiting the cost and providing ongoing certainty for one of the many tariffs that C and C stations must pay. They ask that this committee keep these issues in mind when contemplating possible changes to the act in order to ensure that Canadians continue to reap the benefits of a strong C and C broadcasting sector.
In conclusion, I appreciate the opportunity to speak today, and I would be pleased to answer any questions.