OTTAWA – The Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ three-year battle to get the CRTC’s Part II fees abolished cleared a legal hurdle this week.
The Federal Court of Appeal upheld a lower court decision issued last fall that if the fees charged to broadcasters are indeed a tax, then they are unlawful. The matter of whether the fees are a tax will be heard in a trial starting this November. The CAB says the decision will give it “a very good argument” to make during that trial, when it will ask for the Part II licence fee scheme to be abolished.
Canadian broadcasters now pay more than $100 million a year in fees under CRTC regulations, but the money goes into the government’s Consolidated Revenue Fund. The CAB argues that the money “greatly exceeds” the cost of operating the commission and other government programs to manage the broadcast spectrum.
The CAB has lobbied the government and Parliamentarians on the issue, and launched the court challenge in 2003, with the participation of its member broadcasters.
