Canadian Heritage committee  Right. I'll deal with the second one first. The question you ask is one of tax policy, and I'm certainly not an expert in tax policy, but I can see their argument that a service like illico, Crave, or even shomi—that's still around until the end of November—are subject to GST payments, whereas other foreign services that still use our banking system through credit card set-offs don't seem to be.

Canadian Heritage committee  We do a cyclical audit, with a risk analysis, somewhat as we do for all of the licensees who have obligations. We check to see whether they are compliant with the regulations.

Canadian Heritage committee  They have to submit a financial report on their expenses, because they have obligations.

Canadian Heritage committee  I'll give you an example. All of the cable distributors have to allocate a certain percentage of their gross revenue to local content. We verify whether they have really allocated the required amount. It's a financial issue. Of course, we can always receive complaints. We receive some from third parties, for instance from members of the community, and we process them.

Canadian Heritage committee  The Broadcasting Act is under your purview. I understand that the government is going to have to launch a process. I am not aware of the minister's intentions. We are still holding consultations to hear what Canadians have to say. For our part, we have launched a process on the reform of the television system.

Canadian Heritage committee  I have always spoken about local news from the perspective of citizens. We have to ensure that Canadian citizens are well informed about what is happening in their neighbourhood, their province, their country and the world. I approach the matter from that angle. However, your committee could perhaps make some recommendations.

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you for that excellent question. I feel a bit of paternity for APTN because I was general counsel at the CRTC when I came up with the idea that we could use paragraph 9(1)(h) to give birth to APTN, because before then paragraph 9(1)(h) was not being used. It was just an article in the statute, which then allowed the financing that created APTN and others that don't normally make it as well because they are more niche but are still important to citizenship in this country, like people with other kinds of disabilities—hearing and so forth.

Canadian Heritage committee  Okay, I will give you very quick answers. The process that leads up to the consultations in November has already started. It starts in written form. We develop a file for the public and people can comment, including the members of your committee. If you want to take part in one of our public hearings, you are welcome.

Canadian Heritage committee  As parliamentarians, you should know that the Broadcasting Act guarantees, codifies, and ensures the independence of the CRTC as a quasi-judicial body. This gives more power for the minister to engage in this review. The act that this House, this place, has adopted provides a way for the minister to speak to the commissioner.

Canadian Heritage committee  Sorry?

Canadian Heritage committee  We started this in 2013 with Let's Talk TV. This is nothing new. We said in Decisions 2015 that we would be doing this. There is no news here. I know people are spinning it as news, but we said we would be doing this in 2015. In fact, I looked quite carefully in the last election.

Canadian Heritage committee  It's a complicated answer to what seems to be an easy question. On telecommunications, the access to broadband networks is a form of regulation we do, and for which we have a proceeding pending. I'll give you a short answer—it's called “Let's #TalkBroadband Internet”. That's pending.

Canadian Heritage committee  I realize that a lot of people equate the CRTC with broadcasting. Our mandate is actually a lot more complicated than that. Of the $63 billion generated by the communication industry, two-thirds relates to telecommunications, and broadcasting is a small part of that. We're still quite active in making sure that we have more connectivity and fair prices for Canadians on the telecommunications side.

Canadian Heritage committee  Right.

Canadian Heritage committee  What can happen is that a producer who has a very innovative project that won't be able to qualify as a 10 out of 10 for the Canada Media Fund, which represents a much more important portion of the funding than the 1% for all the independent funds—let's say they can't qualify for that—gets another door to knock on to produce the project, because they're a six out of 10, a seven out of 10, or whatever.