And will the next government modernize the Broadcasting Act?
By Amanda Oye
THE ELECTION MAY have killed Bill C-10, the legislation designed to modernize the Broadcasting Act, but its memory lives on in the pages of the official party platforms released by the Conservatives, the NDP and the Liberals.
All three parties address issues related to the Broadcasting Act and to funding Canadian broadcasting in their platforms. They outline plans to protect Canadian media, tax digital giants, move forward with (or without) CBC/Radio-Canada, and of course, modernize the Broadcasting Act.
Protecting Canadian media
The Conservative party acknowledged there is a crisis in Canadian media. “The loss of digital advertising revenue to American tech giants like Google and Facebook is putting local newspapers out of business, costing Canadian jobs and undermining our ability to tell local, Canadian stories,” their platform reads.
The Conservatives do not, however, believe the solution is for government to provide funding directly “to hand-picked media outlets, something that undermines press freedom and trust in media.” As such, the party plans to eliminate “Trudeau’s $600 million media bailout,” the platform says.
The Conservatives instead want to “secure a level playing field for Canadian media, ensuring that Canadians are paid fairly for the content they create while encouraging the creation of more Canadian media and culture,” the platform says.
To do this, they plan to “introduce a digital media royalty framework to ensure that Canadian media outlets are fairly compensated for the sharing of their content by platforms like Google and Facebook.”
They will base their approach on best practices from jurisdictions including Australia and France. Their approach will include “a robust arbitration process and the creation of an intellectual property right for article extracts shared on a social media platform,” the Conservative party’s platform says.
The Conservatives will also ensure the new framework encompasses smaller media outlets and that government cannot make decisions about who has access to the royalty framework and who does not.
The party further plans to significantly reduce the money “government is spending on advertising with big foreign tech companies like Twitter and instead direct federal ad dollars to Canadian media, including community weeklies, regional media, and ethnic media,” the Conservative’s platform says.
The platform also says the party will “streamline and reduce the regulatory burden placed on conventional Canadian broadcasters and cable companies, including CRTC license fees and Canadian Media Fund contribution requirements, with the loss in revenue to be compensated by a portion of the revenue from the new digital services tax.”
The NDP’s platform provided much less detail on how the party plans to support and protect Canadian media. The platform does, however, say the NDP will “increase funding for Telefilm and enhance financial support for the Canada Media Fund.”
The Liberals have plans to support Canadian media through Telefilm and the Canadian Media Fund as well.
The party’s official platform says if they are elected, they will increase funding to Telefilm Canada permanently by $50 million, double the government’s contribution to the Canadian Media Fund over three years and increase the proportion of funding for French content at both organizations from 33% to 40% “to support a better presence of French-language productions.” The platform also says the party will provide $13 million per year to the Indigenous Screen Office on a permanent basis.
The Liberal’s platform further indicates the party will also make sure “the realities of artists and cultural workers are considered in upcoming reforms to the Employment Insurance (EI) system,” and will update “the Copyright Act, including amending the Act to allow resale rights for artists.” The party’s platform also says if re-elected, they will hold a summit on plans to restart the country’s arts and cultural industries.
Covid relief is something that is still high on the Liberal’s agenda. Budget 2021 noted in September 2020, the government announced $50 million for a Short-Term Compensation Fund “to support Canadian television and film productions interrupted by the pandemic,” and in February 2021, it “extended the fund into 2021-2022 and doubled the funding to up to $100 million so that, during the peak spring and summer production period this year, filmmakers and producers have access to this critical backstop that reduces the financial risk productions face” due ongoing Covid-related shutdowns.
In a backgrounder on the Liberal’s current plan to support Canadian businesses, the party indicates if they are re-elected, the government will “extend the fund from March 31, 2022 to December 31, 2022 to provide predictability to the sector by covering the upcoming production season.”
Making digital giants pay
The Conservatives plan to require large “streaming services like Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video to reinvest a significant portion of their Canadian gross revenue into producing original Canadian programming, of which a mandated portion must be French language programming,” their platform reads.
The proportion they will be expected to pay will depend “on the nature of the streaming service and would be determined based on the best practices of other jurisdictions, such as those in Europe and Australia, as well as the nature of the Canadian market,” according to the platform. The reinvestment requirements will “recognize and incentivize partnerships with Canadian independent media producers.”
If companies do not meet their reinvestment obligations within a given year, “they will be required to pay the difference into the Canadian Media Fund,” according to the platform.
The Conservatives also plan to implement a Digital Services Tax “representing 3% of gross revenues in Canada, to make web giants pay their fair share,” the platform says.
The NDP’s platform indicates the party wants to implement a tax on large digital companies as well. “Canadian film, television, and media is up against a tidal wave of well-funded American content – and the Liberals have not done what it takes to level the playing field,” the party’s platform reads.
Because of this, the NDP says it “will step up to make sure that Netflix, Facebook, Google and other digital media companies play by the same rules as Canadian broadcasters.” The party believes “these companies need to pay corporate taxes now, support Canadian content in both official languages, and take responsibility for what appears on their platforms, just like other media outlets.”
Taxing digital media companies was a major component of Bill C-10 and the Liberal’s 2019 election platform. This election, the Liberal’s platform says the party will, within 100 days, introduce legislation that will “ensure foreign web giants contribute to the creation and promotion of Canadian stories and music.”
They also plan to introduce legislation “that would require digital platforms that generate revenues from the publication of news content to share a portion of their revenues with Canadian news outlets.”
CBC/Radio-Canada
The Conservatives want to make changes to the CBC. The party believes some parts of the CBC are still valuable, while it questions the value of others. “There are also concerns that CBC’s online news presence is undermining the viability of Canadian print and online media, reducing the diversity of voices available to Canadians,” the party’s platform reads.
The party wants to “protect CBC Radio and CBC North,” while reviewing “the mandate of CBC English Television, CBC News Network and CBC English online news to assess the viability of refocusing the service on a public interest model like that of PBS in the United States, ensuring that it no longer competes with private Canadian broadcasters and digital providers,” according to its platform.
The Conservative party also outlines plans to provide Radio-Canada with “a separate and distinct legal and administrative structure to reflect its distinct mandate of promoting francophone language and culture while maintaining its funding and providing for continued sharing of resources and facilities where applicable.”
The NDP is taking a completely different approach to CBC/Radio-Canada. The party believes public broadcasting “needs to have an even stronger future now more than ever to help make sure that Canadians have access to accurate, relevant information no matter where they live,” according to the party’s platform.
They plan to increase the Corporation’s funding “to help reverse the damage of decades of funding cuts under both Liberal and Conservative governments,” the party’s platform says.
The Liberals are also saying they want to provide CBC/Radio-Canada with more funding. The party’s platform shows they want to provide the Corporation with $400 million over four years “so that it is less reliant on private advertising with a goal of eliminating advertising during news and other public affairs shows.”
Beyond providing the CBC with more funding, the Liberals also want to update the CBC/Radio-Canada’s mandate, reaffirm its role “in protecting and promoting the French language and Francophone cultures in Quebec and across the country,” increase news production, strengthen Radio Canada International and make sure Indigenous voices and cultures are on screens and on the radio through the CBC.
The Broadcasting Act
The Conservatives say they will repeal Bill C-10, “which gives too much power to regulators while failing to provide businesses with the clear guidelines they need to operate,” according to their platform. (Editor’s note: Bill C-10 is already dead and does not need to be repealed).
They intend to replace C-10 with legislation that “deals with the realities of an increasingly online market and the need to provide businesses with certainty and consumers with choice.”
The Conservatives will exempt content uploaded by Canadians onto social media sites “from regulation in order to protect free speech,” the platform says.
The NDP intends to “do what the Liberals failed to do and modernize the Broadcasting Act fairly in order to create a level playing field between Canadian broadcasters and foreign streaming services, to rebalance negotiating power for Canadian independent producers and the Canadian cultural sector, and to ensure Canadian programming is owned by Canadians,” the party’s platform reads.
The Liberals plan to reintroduce, within 100 days, “legislation to reform the Broadcasting Act to ensure foreign web giants contribute to the creation and promotion of Canadian stories and music,” their platform says.
For more, you can view the Conservative’s platform here, the Liberal’s platform here, and the NDP’s platform here.
