ISED won’t rule out using spectrum proceeds for CanCon: Bains

OTTAWA — Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains and Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly had slightly different messages in response to the issue of new recommendations from the CRTC potentially increasing telecom and media service costs for Canadian consumers. The federal government won’t support a rise in prices as a result of a new CRTC report, Joly told reporters on Parliament Hill Friday. “We will not increase costs for Canadians,” she said. The report recommended implementing Canadian content levies from internet service providers (ISPs) and other telecoms and “equitable” contributions from online services. Joly was responding to a question about whether the government would reconsider its stance on the so-called “Netflix tax,” which has been used to refer to both imposing sales tax on foreign streaming platforms, and the idea of imposing Canadian content contributions on such services. The Liberal government has long maintained it wouldn’t put such measures in place, and last year also kiboshed the idea of extending CanCon contributions to ISPs. However, Bains was less declarative. He told reporters Thursday that questions about how the CRTC’s recommendations would affect costs would be key for the government. “How are consumers going to be impacted by this? What are the cost implications for consumers? And that’s going to drive a lot of our decision-making,” he said, according to a report in the Globe and Mail. He also didn’t rule out a suggestion by the CRTC that a portion of the proceeds of spectrum auctions be used to fund Canadian content. His office said in a statement that “there are many views on this important subject and we will consider them all ... as we update our laws to adapt to the impacts of new technology on Canadian consumers, creators and broadcasters.” The report came up briefly in question period Thursday, when NDP Heritage critic Pierre Nantel asked the government to take action, including imposing sales tax on services like Netflix Inc. Joly responded that she and Bains “will have the opportunity to make announcements shortly regarding the modernization of the Broadcasting Act and the Telecommunications Act.” Nantel told The Wire Report in an email the CRTC’s report is a good “wake-up” call. “The CRTC is saying that our broadcasting system is broken, and that the government can no longer pretend internet does not exist,” he said, or with the millions of Canadian who subscribe to Netflix, “that it doesn't affect our broadcasting system.” Nantel also took aim at the government’s decision, in its Creative Canada report last September, to top up Canada Media Fund (CMF) funding, which is decreasing as TV provider revenues fall, “instead of encouraging those same billion-dollar companies to top up their contributions with their growing ISP revenues.” The CRTC said Thursday that while the top-up to the CMF is important, that kind of government support is only a short-term and unsustainable solution to the problem. He also said the doesn’t want to see more consultations on this issue, which independent broadcasting consultant Kelly-Lynne Ashton told The Wire Report Thursday could very well happen. “Our cultural industries have participated actively in the last three years of endless consultations on this issue, and the last thing we need is another consultation. It's time for Mélanie Joly to take the many recommendations made by our cultural industries and get on with reforming the Broadcasting Act and the Telecommunications Act as she promised — before the next election,” Nantel said. — With reporting by Bryson Masse at bmasse@thewirereport.ca and Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca and reporting and editing by Ahmad Hathout at ahathout@thewirereport.ca

ISED won’t rule out using spectrum proceeds for CanCon: Bains

Broadcast | June 1, 2018

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ISED won’t rule out using spectrum proceeds for CanCon: Bains

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