Canadian Heritage committee  Just a couple of things pop to mind. I sort of agree with Mr. Coteau. I took a master's in civic media in Boston a couple of years ago, and one of the things we talked a lot about is that algorithms are never neutral. They're always informed by the biases of the people that write

Canadian Heritage committee  In Bill C-11 our hope is that.... To give you an example, in 2016, the last time the CRTC reviewed its local and community TV policy, there were public notices of consultation that went out, and then stakeholders could weigh in. The not-for-profit community TV groups that are ste

Canadian Heritage committee  That's right. Absolutely.

Canadian Heritage committee  For Bill C‐10, we asked that the “community element” be defined firstly by not-for-profit ownership and secondly by participation by the community in the production process. The second part was adopted, but “not-for-profit” was not. We were told that an exclusively not-for-profit

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you for inviting us. As the director of the Canadian Association of Community TV Users and Stations, and with my colleague from the Fédération des télévisions communautaires autonomes du Québec, our comments chiefly concern community TV, but we have consulted closely with

Canadian Heritage committee  Can I answer that?

Canadian Heritage committee  Before 2017, when the independent local news fund was created, there was—on paper, at least—supposed to be $150 million spent across the country on community TV, but it's being spent on a handful of big-city stations because all the small ones had been closed. We've been asking f

Canadian Heritage committee  That's really kind of you. We were only invited last night, so we didn't have much time to prepare our comments. When the Rogers-Shaw proceeding was before the CRTC and open for public comment, we did participate and we simultaneously filed an application for a certified indepen

Canadian Heritage committee  It's an observation that community media is ten times as cost effective as private or public sector media, and it's really the only cost-effective model for smaller communities. It's disappointing that Rogers and Shaw, the two companies at the focus of this, have been the reason

Canadian Heritage committee  Okay. I'll jump ahead. We all know that local news is in trouble, but we've been erroneously handing money to vertically and horizontally integrated giants to solve the problem. At each hearing, they promised that with deeper pockets they would be able to support local productio

Canadian Heritage committee  —and service for smaller communities outside of the control of Rogers and other BDUs, including a local journalism initiative and the establishment of a community access media fund to support not-for-profit community media. We currently have a proposal for such a fund before the

Canadian Heritage committee  —to apply for and fund. Yes. We're finished.

Canadian Heritage committee  We had very little time to prepare—one day.

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you for inviting us. I'm Catherine Edwards with the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations. With me is Amélie Hinse, the executive director of the Fédération des télévisions communautaires autonomes du Québec. Our organizations advocate for acc

Canadian Heritage committee  I'll let Alex answer for radio. For 10 years we've been underscoring to the CRTC and faithfully participating in CRTC hearings about community television, specifically saying that the digital transition has happened; cable companies are consolidated; they're shutting those stud