OTTAWA – In what’s got to be a first, a Canadian group is actually calling for a bigger CRTC.
The 150,000-member Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada said Wednesday that the CRTC "needs a wider scope and greater resources in order to properly protect the public interest in the rapidly changing world of media and information technology."
The union proposed its new CRTC mandate at the same time as it filed its opposition to by Bell Canada Enterprises plan to cede control of Bell Globemedia (home of CTV and the Globe and Mail, among other assets) to the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, the Woodbridge Company and Torstar. BCE would retain 20% ownership under the proposed structure, as reported here.
Peter Murdoch, CEP’s media vice-president and secretary treasurer, said in the release that the Commission does not have the mandate or resources to deal with the implications he sees in the proposed sale.
"Telecommunications, broadcasting and media are so intertwined that the current regulator is no longer equipped to deal with it. The BGM ownership restructuring presents fundamental and serious implications for preservation of a democratic media," he said.
"This has become a marketplace without regulation. We are heading into an age of one owner with many stalls, vendors selling the same products with the same patter at the same price. Goodbye diversity and goodbye public interest," Murdoch added.
CEP contends in its submission that a partnership between CTV, the Globe and Mail and Torstar will further erode diversity and an open flow of opinion and information in Canada.
"The mandate of the boardroom will supercede the requirements for a vibrant and democratic media," Murdoch said. "We need more time, more input and more resources to deal with this proposal under the larger umbrella it requires."
