Evidence of meeting #69 for Official Languages in the 41st 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
Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
Yes.
Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
The original work plan is no longer in effect. We are now drafting a new work plan with the group to reflect the new reality.
Liberal
Stéphane Dion Liberal Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC
So there is currently no work plan, but you are working....
Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
...on putting one in place.
Liberal
Stéphane Dion Liberal Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC
You just talked about the renewal of CBC/Radio-Canada's licences and the consequences for official language minorities.
Could you tell us a bit about that? What is involved in that issue?
Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
The issue is a delicate one.
My answer may be related to another question that has been asked already. It is a matter of knowing how to address those matters. Once we launched the process with several notices of public hearings, we highlighted the issue for the French communities and services—all of Radio-Canada's services in French are part of it, as well as services in English—and we invited people to attend the hearings.
Canadians were very well represented. We covered a whole range of issues, including those of a linguistic nature. Some of your colleagues from the House of Commons were there. Senators also came. So we have a very well-rounded case. We hope to be able to make a decision on all those licences in the spring.
Liberal
Stéphane Dion Liberal Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC
A distinction should be made between licensing conditions and the expectations, should it not?
Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
Yes.
Liberal
Stéphane Dion Liberal Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC
Could you explain to us what that distinction may mean for official language communities?
Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
The conditions are as legally stringent as they can be. At the hearing, the nature of the commitment makes it difficult to characterize it as a licensing condition. In fact, that can sometimes be a bit vague, or the situation may be a bit uncertain owing to its nature. A licence holder applying for renewal makes certain commitments during the hearing. They take on those commitments, but if they do not meet them, we cannot take more direct recourses. If we are talking about a licensing condition, we have a whole set of tools we can use. Failure to meet a licensing condition is a very serious offence. Binding orders can be issued in such situations. There are legal recourses available. As far as commitments go, the enforcement is less direct. We do not have as many legal tools at our disposal.
Liberal
Stéphane Dion Liberal Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC
But you take that into account during the renewal process.
Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
Certain things can be done with regard to renewals. In the past, commitments have become conditions for the next renewal.
Liberal
Stéphane Dion Liberal Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC
Can you tell us a bit about the applications submitted by the Canadian Foundation for Cross-Cultural Dialogue and TV5? What kind of potential could that have for official language minority communities?
Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
Two applications have been submitted to us: one by TV5 and another one by what people call “Accents”. They will be dealt with at the hearings in April. We published the notice of the proceeding a few weeks ago. I think the deadline for submissions was last night. I don't know how many stakeholders have submitted requests, but I know that, overall, there are about 17,000 interventions for the April hearing.
Liberal
Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
Everyone will have an opportunity to make their case.
Conservative
Conservative
Corneliu Chisu Conservative Pickering—Scarborough East, ON
Thank you very much, Mr. President.
You gently said that you are supervising, so in the supervisory function it is an enforcement function. Are you enforcing?
How are you conducting this process of enforcement in the condition of the licence? You have 702 television services in Canada—439 in English, 101 in French—and 1,189 radio services in Canada. All of these are licensed, I understand.
Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
That's correct.
Conservative
Corneliu Chisu Conservative Pickering—Scarborough East, ON
Does the enforcement process start with a warning or a temporary suspension? How does it work for you?
Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
It's a little bit more complicated than that.
Operators are obliged to provide us with information on a regular basis. For instance, television services give us their TV logs, and we have a system to evaluate whether they are in fact broadcasting the amount of Canadian content they are supposed to, and so forth. It is the same thing with radio. We can get the tapes of a radio station and check.
One of the more effective ways we have to enforce is that there's, of course always a renewal process. If somebody has not met their obligations, it has an impact on the renewal.
In some instances, if somebody's breaching a condition of licence and despite warnings are not correcting the situation, the act provides us with a due process to bring a party to what is called a mandatory order hearing. We say to them, if you don't clean up your act and meet the conditions of the licence, we will issue a mandatory order. Then the mandatory order is registered with the Federal Court. It becomes an order of the Federal Court and, therefore, not complying with it becomes a contempt proceeding. That's another way we enforce it. We rarely use it, but a breach of a condition can also lead to penal sanction, but we find other ways are more effective.
Conservative
Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
The vast majority of broadcasters comply with their conditions of licence. A small number sometimes get into trouble. Unfortunately, they tend to be the smaller players, the less sophisticated players. That's why we have a small broadcaster group that helps them understand their regulatory obligation. We accompany them to get them onside.
Our goal is not to yank a licence, or to fine them, or anything, but to get them into compliance, and so we work with them. There have been cases that have escalated and we have the powers to deal with those.
