OTTAWA – New Canadian Heritage and Official Languages Minister James Moore didn’t wait long to get his hands dirty.
On the job for less than a month, his ministry today announced the federal government has referred back for reconsideration and re-hearing, the August 26th decisions by the CRTC to award new radio station licenses in the Ottawa-Gatineau region.
The decision, as reported by Cartt.ca, licensed two new English-language commercial FM radio stations to serve the area and some complained that both licenses were going to English-language broadcasters. Under orders from the Minister today, the Commission now has to squeeze in another public proceeding in January.
"Our Government recognizes radio’s contribution to the vitality of Anglophone and Francophone minority communities. In referring the decisions back to the CRTC, we expect that it will reconsider what it decided about radio frequencies in Ottawa-Gatineau," said Moore in the press release. "We are asking the Commission to fully consider and explain its approach to evaluating the needs of official-language minority communities and how it applies in this case."
"Last June, when we presented the Roadmap for Canada’s Linguistic Duality 2008-2013, we asked the CRTC to examine the broadcasting services provided to minority Anglophones and Francophones. The Roadmap is proof of our commitment to promoting both our official languages," added Moore. "We want the CRTC to determine the views of residents of the region through a public hearing to start in January 2009. This will enable the CRTC to consider all viewpoints and identify the challenges to be met in providing Canadians with broadcasting services suited to their needs."
The Commission granted the broadcasting licence application of Astral Media Radio and that of Frank Torres, on behalf of a company yet to be incorporated. Torres wants to launch a blues station while Astral will do soft A/C. Commissioner Michel Morin dissented with the decision, but he wanted another news/talk station and didn’t quibble over the fact both stations approved were English.
At the time of the decision, the CRTC denied licences to eight other applicants that had submitted proposals and were heard at a hearing in May. These proposals included applications for commercial English- and French-language stations, an application for a French-language community radio station, and an application for a community-based French-language campus radio station.
