Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak on private member's Bill C-216, an act to amend the Broadcasting Act with respect to broadcasting policy, put forward by my colleague from Sarnia-Lambton.
In the week between Christmas and New Years in 1994, my office, like those of my colleagues, received a deluge of calls from Erie constituents who were concerned with their cable package and the billing option that was to take effect on January 1, 1995. They were angry and they had had enough. I certainly did not fault them. They were right. Negative option billing is unacceptable.
I am in favour of Bill C-216 because it would ban negative option billing. It would apply not only to cable companies but to any other company that provided a distribution undertaking which is defined under the Broadcasting Act as "an undertaking for the reception of broadcasting and the retransmission thereof by radio waves or other means of telecommunications to more than one permanent or temporary residence or dwelling unit or to another such undertaking".
Today we are looking at more players entering the market for broadcasting services such as telephone and satellite companies which will soon provide competition to cable companies. By passing Bill C-216 we can ban negative option billing for new programming services no matter who provides them.
My constituents were calling me because the cable companies are federally regulated by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, commonly referred to as the CRTC.
In 1994 the CRTC licensed six new English language and two new French language specialty services. The commission's two primary objectives in doing this were to strengthen the Canadian presence in the Canadian broadcasting system, especially in anticipation of an invasion by American direct to home satellite services and to ensure that the widest possible selection of new Canadian services would be available at a reasonable cost.
I support these objectives. I support strong Canadian content and a strong Canadian presence in the entertainment industry. However, this cannot be achieved by taking advantage of the Canadian consumer. My constituents were not upset there were eight new channels on January 1, 1995. They were angry because they would automatically be billed for a service they did not request. They felt manipulated through higher fees and the repackaging and repositioning of channels-