CBC to be under the microscope at two House committees

Following the return of House of Commons business this month, a handful of parliamentary committees are gearing up for studies dealing with Canada’s broadcasting and media sectors. CBC/Radio-Canada will be in focus at at least two of the committees. The House of Commons heritage committee has not yet decided on any new studies, but this week it agreed to invite CBC/Radio-Canada president Hubert Lacroix to discuss the public broadcaster’s five-year strategy. Lacroix appeared before the committee shortly after the five-year plan was released in February. At that time, he told the committee that the CBC required stable federal funding to implement its plan. The Conservative government has rejected requests for multi-year funding plans for the CBC, opting to carry on the previous Liberal governments’ policies of issuing funding on an annual basis. Lacroix is also likely to appear before the House ethics committee this fall to discuss the CBC’s efforts to keep some of its financial records exempt from access-to-information laws. The broadcaster is going to court to contest the federal information commissioner’s demand that it produce records requested under access to information laws, many of them from the QMI news agency, owned by Quebecor Media Inc. The CBC is appealing a Federal Court decision last year that gave the Office of the Information Commissioner the authority to order the CBC to produce records. The case is now before the Federal Court of Appeal, with a hearing scheduled for Oct. 18 in Montreal. “Canadians are very concerned that we’re paying both sides of what looks to be a very expensive, very protracted and very long lawsuit,” Dean Del Mastro, the parliamentary secretary to the Prime Minister and a member of the ethics committee, told The Wire Report this week. The CBC argues that Section 68.1 of the Access to Information Act permits the broadcaster to exclude some records from release. Section 68.1 says the law “does not apply to any information that is under the control of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that relates to its journalistic, creative or programming activities, other than information that relates to its general administration.” The ethics committee began looking at the issue of CBC and access-to-information during the 40th Parliament in early 2011. On Sept. 27, the committee approved a proposed list of witnesses that includes Quebecor Media CEO Pierre Karl Peladeau. Also on the list are representatives from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, satellite and cable providers that compete with the CBC, as well as media critics, analysts, journalism professors, and groups that support the CBC. Many witnesses are not expected to appear until after the Oct. 18 hearing, and the CBC is expected to appear last. “We’re going to give the CBC the last word on this so they can respond to all the criticism,” Del Mastro said. The House industry committee has agreed to undertake a study of e-commerce in Canada, including the “future possibilities and emerging technology in the field” and the impact of commercial transactions through mobile devices. The study will also examine e-commerce best practices, the level of e-commerce in Canada and ways to increase it. No witnesses have yet been scheduled for the study, which was agreed to on Sept. 26. Another issue headed to committee will be the government’s reintroduced copyright reform bill. Tabled in the House Thursday, Bill C-11, The Copyright Modernization Act, will head to a special legislative committee after receiving second reading in the House. That study will pick up where the legislative committee left off its study of an identical bill in the 40th Parliament, Bill C-32. The Senate Standing Committee on Transport and Communications will continue a study of issues related to the Canadian airline industry. nkyonka@thewirereport.ca

CBC to be under the microscope at two House committees

News | 09/30/2011 8:41 pm EDT

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