Canadian Heritage committee  Good afternoon. I am Paul Temple, and with me is my colleague Luc Perreault. You may not be familiar with the Pelmorex name, but we own and operate the Weather Network and MétéoMédia, which are authorized by the CRTC to provide weather and environmental news, and information pr

Canadian Heritage committee  Here's why. The same few cable and satellite distributors also control access to the Internet and mobile devices. They control all of the distribution channels; you cannot reach consumers without going through them. These same few distributors have increasingly expanded their con

Canadian Heritage committee  We proposed to the CRTC that we would provide what we call a backbone network to allow any government agency in Canada to distribute public safety messages, and that in return the commission would continue to require us to be distributed on basic. The commission issued that order

Canadian Heritage committee  Well, the CBC doesn't have any money. This network is already in place. Provinces are signing up: Ontario, Nova Scotia. We have an advisory board with all the provinces and territories and the federal government participating. The system's there. It works. The equipment is all re

Canadian Heritage committee  We need extra steps to make sure we're not disadvantaged. To rely only on complaints is not satisfactory. The commission has eliminated, over the past few years, most of the regulatory safeguards. So now distributors can basically do whatever they please. If they want to move you

Canadian Heritage committee  Well, that's a legitimate concern. No one wants to be sued. I think everyone expects government to take full responsibility for the content of their messages. That's one of the issues the industry and government are going to have to work out. In that sense, that's a reasonable co

Canadian Heritage committee  We've distributed Environment Canada warnings for over 20 years now, and we've never been sued, touch wood. So we're doing it.

Industry committee  Good afternoon. My name is Paul Temple and I'm the senior vice-president of regulatory and strategic affairs at Pelmorex Media Inc. When I was first asked to appear here, it was more along the lines of a case study, so I'm going to just basically tell you our story. Pelmorex is

Industry committee  I want to make one point. I know it will probably sound like a five-minute commercial for The Weather Network and MétéoMédia, but the point is that getting a website is just the beginning. It's a constant process of change and investment after that. Yesterday's site has to be rev

Industry committee  In terms of our digital media products—that is, our web and applications—they're solely supported by advertising. We're very reliant on being able to reach as many people as often as possible who check the website. We try to monetize that by selling advertising. For the conventio

Industry committee  I hope so.

Industry committee  We have an arrangement with Environment Canada and with all of the provinces and territories. They can access our system and distribute their public safety messages. On a typical day, we'll get a hundred of so public safety messages from Environment Canada alone. Some of them are

Industry committee  You can sign up for our email and text-messaging services. We have text messaging. We have email. We're going to be putting it on Twitter. For any product we provide, we include public safety messages. Unfortunately, other broadcasters have not been as enthusiastic in picking it

Industry committee  There have been changes to the SR and ED program, and the ability to claim certain tax incentives has been reduced. One of the points I want to make is that it's an ongoing process, and the availability of those types of tax credits are very helpful. In some ways, we're a good c

Industry committee  Excuse me, Mr. Chair.