OTTAWA – While tomorrow’s news will be utterly dominated by the U.S. election, November 3, 2020 will be the launch day of a new Broadcasting Act as Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault is expected to table the long-awaited amendments (and some other Acts, too, apparently) to the law.
While things could change at the last minute, the Heritage Ministry has scheduled technical briefings for the new proposed amendments with the both the press and the industry – and the federal government doesn’t do that unless and until it has first tabled the bill in the House of Commons.
According to the Notice Paper, the bill is to be entitled “An Act to amend the Broadcasting Act and to make related and consequential amendments to other Acts.” What other Acts? The CRTC Act is certainly a possibility, but we find it hard to believe Heritage Canada would be placed in charge of changing the Telecom or Radiocommunications Acts, which fall under the purview of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada.
So far, ISED and minister Navdeep Bains have been silent on potential updates to the Telecom and Radiocom Acts.
These amendments are hotly anticipated by those who want the so-called digital giants to contribute to the production of Canadian content (as Minister Guilbeault and the federal government have been promising) – and by those who think they should be left alone. Traditional Canadian broadcasters are also hoping these amendments will relieve them of some of their regulatory requirements.
The amendments are to be distilled from the advice given by the Broadcast and Telecom Legislative Review panel, which filed its 97 recommendations in January.
Cartt.ca will be covering this closely. Please return to the site later on Tuesday for more on this.
