Bill C-11 could be fully implemented within two years of receiving Royal Assent: CRTC chair

The CRTC will take at least two years to fully implement the government’s Online Streaming Act, Bill C-11, once it receives Royal Assent, according to the commission’s chair who spoke to committee members in a heated discussion of the bill. Ian Scott spoke before the House of Commons Heritage committee Wednesday as it studied estimates for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2023. Conservative MP John Nater raised concerns with Scott that the CRTC did not have adequate resources to implement Bill C-11 or the Online Compensation Act, Bill C-18, and inquired how long it will take to implement the former. “That's a complicated question. It's a fair one,” Scott said. Scott said the timeframe for implementation will depend on “what is the content of the legislation ultimately passed by Parliament, and what might be the nature of any policy direction that the government puts to the CRTC.” He said over the past year, more than 100 staff at the CRTC have been preparing for the implementation of Bill C-11. Scott said the broad parameters of the regulatory regime – such as who will contribute, who is caught in the bill, what are the major definitions – should be done “reasonably within a year.” He added that other “more technical issues,” and regulations that need to be passed beyond the control of the CRTC, will take up to another year. The CRTC also plans to launch public consultations on the implementation of the bill. “So if I had to put a number on it I think it can be fully implemented within two years,” he said. Scott said that it is more difficult to predict the implementation timeline for Bill C-18 because it is “very new” to the commission, and it would first have to go through the Department of Justice. Under the recent budget, the Liberal government provided the CRTC with $8.5 million funding over the course of two years to establish its new regulatory regimes. “That is adequate to do the preparatory work. Thereafter, there will need to be a review of the precise budgetary requirements, but it will largely get collected from the fee payers,” Scott said. Conservative MPs also took the opportunity to grill Scott over the concerns of Bill C-11. Opposition MP Rachael Thomas asked the chair if he was “comfortable with the amount of discretionary power that would be put in your hands with regards to Bill C-11 and regulating programming?” “To be honest and sincere? Yes. We are. We’re a regulatory agency – we're an experienced, if you will, overseer of the broadcasting sector – and it's a successful sector. And I just honestly and earnestly don't accept the criticism that we're not prepared or able because it’s simply not true,” Scott said. Thomas pushed back claiming that there is a new chair being searched for at the CRTC “because that is deemed necessary in order to modernize the CRTC.” However, Scott responded that it has always been part of the CRTC’s regulations for a chair to serve a five year term, with none having been reappointed in the history of the commission. Thomas then asked if the bill does, or could in fact, capture individual users creating content. “As constructed, there is a provision that would allow us to do it as required,” Scott said, arguing that it is not different from current broadcasting legislation. “That's all true today. We could do any of those things today” “There should be a higher degree of trust in relation to the commission's future actions as demonstrated by, as I said, 50 years of broadcast regulation. We have never interfered in individual content,” Scott said. Thomas then argued there is no scarcity on the internet and, therefore, there was no need to oversee content online through Bill C-11. “It will allow us to deal with broadcasting whatever form it takes, in whatever form it's delivered. It is a very significant portion of the broadcasting system today,” Scott said. “We’re not regulating the internet, we’re regulating broadcasting, whatever platform it comes on.” Thomas asked Scott for the definition of broadcasting. “The objectives are set out in section three -” Scott said before Thomas interrupted him to say “are you telling that as the chair of the CRTC, who has a renewed term, you cannot define the very basic thing that is your job? Wow competence,” she said. “Thank you,” Scott replied. The chair of the committee then called out Thomas for "badgering the witness." Conservative MP Kevin Waugh shifted focus to Bill C-18, raising concern that “the CRTC has never regulated newspapers” in its history. “Why are you looking after newspapers? For 53 years you have not. That wasn't your mandate, and this shouldn't be your mandate to look after newspapers in this country,” Waugh said. Scott argued that the CRTC was not looking after newspapers, but rather it was looking after remuneration and setting up regulatory parameters for when commercial negotiations fail. He pointed out that the CRTC has helped broadcast news do similar work for the past 50 years. “We do a great deal of mediation and arbitration in all sectors, but particularly in broadcasting largely between distributors and suppliers – suppliers of programming and those who distribute it,” he said. Waugh implied the broadcasting field today has “failed under the CRTC” because there are “more dark stations that have turned off their dial.” “Do you look back at the last five years and say ‘God, we have lost X-number of radio stations in this country, we have lost hundreds, if not thousands, of broadcasters in this country. So when you leave at the end of September, what do you say to your leadership on the CRTC?,” Waugh asked Scott. Scott refuted those claims by Waugh claiming only “very few radio stations have gone dark” and that the system was quite successful. “Is it successful when you turn on a radio station for six hours, and the rest is satellite for 18 hours of the 24 hours?” Waugh asked. “Or do you even know that is happening in the industry right now?” Scott said the CRTC is quite aware of what is happening in the industry. When Waugh pushed back asking what he is doing about it, Scott responded, “would you like us now to regulate the content? Is that effectively what you're saying?” Waugh brought up the Rogers Communications Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc. merger, asking Scott what he thought about the reports of the Heritage Committee and Competition Bureau, which both opposed the merger. Scott said he disagrees with “the fundamental view that there's not enough benefit” because “it is fundamentally a horizontal merger on the broadcasting side” where the parties did not compete directly with one another. Scott did acknowledge that there are issues largely related to how independent news broadcasters will be funded, after stakeholders raised concerns that Corus’ GlobalTV is likely to seek a significant portion of the Independent Local News Fund (ILNF). He did note that the CRTC said it will review the fund to address the issue. – Reporting by Jenna Cocullo at jcocullo@thewirereport.ca and editing by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca.

Bill C-11 could be fully implemented within two years of receiving Royal Assent: CRTC chair

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Bill C-11 could be fully implemented within two years of receiving Royal Assent: CRTC chair

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