Scott is wrong to think the CRTC can handle C-11: former CRTC vice-chair; Unifor wants local news fund added

Former CRTC vice-chair Peter Menzies has claimed that it "makes no sense" for the CRTC to regulate content on the internet through the Online Streaming Act, despite claims by the current chair Ian Scott that the commission is fully equipped to do so. Menzies made the comments Tuesday as the House of Commons’ Canadian Heritage committee began its study on the Online Streaming Act, Bill C-11. Menzies told committee members that the government was better off drafting a new communications act, as recommended by the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review Panel. “We have an entirely new framework for our communications infrastructure going into the 21st century that's distinctly different from the one that has been used in the 20th century – where you have people going over the air and you have closed systems with no such thing as user-generated content,” he said. CRTC chair Ian Scott said last week that his agency has the knowledge base to be able to regulate the streaming giants, after stakeholders and members of parliament raised concern that it would be too much for the commission to handle. “We’re talking about broadcasting. The commission has been regulating broadcasting for over 50 years,” Scott said at the Canadian chapter of the International Institute of Communications’ annual conference. Menzies refuted that claim, arguing that taking “all these new 21st century developments and trying to stuff them into” the Broadcasting Act is inherently inefficient. He argued that the CRTC has “deep cultural patterns” for how it regulates and said that the whole of the internet is not just about broadcasting. “Giving the CRTC control over the entire global internet, as if the only thing that matters is broadcasting, without having any other framework for it, makes no sense at all,” he said. “Eventually the CRTC is going to have to carve out the section it wants to deal with because it's impossible to deal with the infinity of the internet.” Menzies told the committee that if the legislation does not become more “efficient” it will create years of uncertainty for the industry followed by cabinet appeals and court appeals. Other stakeholders at the meeting also raised concern that parts of the act were too broad, specifically in relation to user-generated content and definitions around commercial content. An exemption for social media services was controversially removed from the Government’s previous attempt at the legislation in a House of Commons Heritage Committee meeting last year. The controversy surrounding the current iteration of the update to the Broadcasting Act surrounds Section 4.1 of the bill which creates an exemption for most content on the sites, but Sections 4.1(2) and 4.2 create a so-called "exemption to the exemption", and defines which content that appears on social media sites can be regulated under the updated act. Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez said that user-content would not be regulated under the bill, however, last week, Scott told the committee confirmed “as constructed, there is a provision” in C-11 that would allow the CRTC to capture user-generated content. Scott added, however, that it is no different than the powers granted to the CRTC under the current Broadcasting Act. Skyship Entertainment Company chief executive officer, Morghan Fortier, told committee members that user-generated content in Bill C-11 is problematic because it is “lumped together as one big solid whole” which encompasses everything from her company’s content to personal videos her mother posts. Skyship is a channel hosted on Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube which creates content for children and, according to Fortier, is the most-watched YouTube channel in Canada. Fortier said that “C-11 is so broad, and it's so contradictory within itself with no definitions and no two clear terms especially when it comes to, as an example, what's commercial and what's non-commercial.” Fortier argued that treating YouTube, TikTok, and Meta Platform Inc.’s Facebook as broadcasters like the CBC/Radio-Canada, Netflix Inc., and Amazon Inc.’s Amazon Prime, demonstrates that the government does not understand how platforms work. “We are not even associated with broadcasters,” she said, adding that the social media platforms do not greenlight, pay for, or produce content. “In the Venn diagram of the entertainment industry, the needs of legacy broadcasters and the enterprise of digital content creators are not interconnected. There is no demonstrable reason that (user-generated) content needs to be included in this bill.” Professional Music Publishers' Association executive director Jérôme Payette argued that any change to the wording of the bill would risk creating a loophole for social media platforms that could have serious consequences for broadcasters. “TikTok is competing with YouTube which is competing with radio stations. The law needs to apply fairly to all businesses or it could be obsolete as soon as it is passed,” he said, according to a translation. “If there are too many elements specified in the legislation, the broadcasting system will be frozen in place and there will be no flexibility to adapt to rapid industry changes. The CRTC must have the means to adequately regulate broadcasting activities of the web giants.” Unifor's assistant to the Quebec director Olivier Carrère told MPs that his organization is asking for an amendment to the bill that would see a fund established specifically for the creation of local journalism, with a view to replacing the Local Program Improvement Fund (LPIF). The fund was created in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis and was ultimately phased out in 2014. "At Unifor, we support the bill, but with the following recommendation: we would like to amend the section 11.1(1)(d). We would like to add an amendment to add a fund to develop fund, and produce, and promote local news and information programming," Carrère said in French, according to simultaneous translation. "The Broadcasting Act was created to defend Canadian voices in a market that would not support them otherwise, and that is still true today." "Local news is in crisis, local news is essential to the public good. We know that a local news fund administered by the CRTC can work because they've already done it successfully," Unifor director of media Randy Kitt told the committee. – Reporting by Jenna Cocullo with files from Michael Lee-Murphy at jcocullo@thewirereport.ca, mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca, and editing by Paul Park at ppaark@thewirereport.ca.

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