Guilbeault promises BTLR legislation in ‘months’

OTTAWA — Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault says his government will introduce legislation to implement some of the recommendations from the expert panel reviewing Canada’s communications legislation in the coming months, and could order the CRTC to take action on new rules for streaming services even sooner. “If it was only up to me, I’d say we would have a bill tabled in the House of Commons in the next few weeks. It’s not just up to me. We are in a minority government. We don’t control the Parliamentary agenda as much as we would if we were in a majority context,” he said at the Prime Time industry conference in Ottawa on Thursday. “In the Parliamentary context, we will be moving this as quick as we can. Months is what I can commit to,” he said, adding he doesn’t want to wait until December. He said the NDP, Bloc Québécois, Greens and some Conservatives have been in favour of some of the recommendations. “On this, I am confident that we will be able to find support for what we want to do and move things quickly.” What will be included is still unclear. The Liberals have already promised legislation to force content providers to include Canadian content in their catalogues, contribute to CanCon creation, promote that content and ensure it’s “easily accessible.” That’s in line with the recommendations from the panel Wednesday, which called for rules requiring large foreign digital audio and video platforms to contribute to and promote Canadian content. Whether those rules would be included in the upcoming legislation, or whether -- as the panel’s report recommended -- those details would be left to the CRTC to work out is unclear. The report said the government should, while it’s waiting on the legislative process, “urgently” issue directives to the CRTC to hold a hearing on the issue and issue an order to impose obligations on online services. Guilbeault indicated that might be an option Thursday, saying “we still have regulatory tools, and these - if we wanted to make some changes on that, we don’t have to go back in the House… maybe there are things we can do in the short term.” The report recommended the new rules for online services be backed by the registration regime created and administered by the CRTC. Speaking to reporters after his appearance, Guilbeault said one of those regulatory tools was the CRTC, who could begin tackling these questions. “The cabinet could decide to ask the CRTC to… do something that it is not currently doing, so that is one of the possibilities. I am not saying we will say it, but I am saying we are looking at different things that we could do before we are able to table a bill, which we want to do as quickly as possible.” He also said, speaking in French, that the government would “study” the panel’s recommendation for CBC/Radio-Canada to go ad-free. Meanwhile, industry reaction to the 198 page report continued to flow in on Thursday. Canada Internet Registration Authority CEO Byron Holland said in a statement that the Internet would "never have been built" if it had been as heavily regulated as recommended in the report. "We acknowledge there are issues with the internet today, however, to implement a 1960s-style regulatory framework on today’s internet would saddle individual Canadians with higher costs, and Canadian businesses with more barriers to entry in the digital economy.," he said. "While there are some recommendations in this review that are worth further study, we recommend that everyone hit pause before fundamentally altering the way Canada’s internet functions." Writer's Guild of Canada executive director Maureen Parker urged the government to quickly act on the report's recommendations around Canadian content. “We hope the federal government soon requires the CRTC to hold hearings and issue a new order so that those media content curators that derive revenue from Canada and are currently exempt from licensing, such as Netflix, are required to contribute to Canadian content through spending and discoverability requirements," Parker said. In a briefing note, BMO Capital Markets analyst Tim Casey said the scope of the report's recommendation was "admirable", but their timing, implementation and success was "unclear" because of the necessity of government action. "Any meaningful impact on public and private entities will depend on timely legislative and/or rule changes," he said. "It is beyond debate that the regulatory framework has to adjust to technology and consumption changes. How, and how fast, a minority government moves is unclear." — With reporting by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca and editing by Adam Langenberg at alangenberg@thewirereport.ca

Guilbeault promises BTLR legislation in ‘months’

News | 01/30/2020 12:53 pm EST

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