OTTAWA – Prime Minister Stephen Harper, fresh off his election win and larger minority government, will announce a new cabinet today in Ottawa, according to several sources.
Online and televised reports say Industry Minister Jim Prentice is being reassigned to Environment and Tony Clement, the current Minister of Health, is headed to the Industry portfolio, which of course oversees the telecom space along with the Department of Canadian Heritage.
It’s not known if Heritage Minister Josee Verner will keep her job, but rumours during the election campaign had her pegged as a minister who may also be reassigned.
Watch…
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KUUJJUAQ, QC – Canadian satellite company Telesat and the Kativik Regional Government (KRG) announced an agreement today that will let a growing number of native communities across Northern Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba have access to a full range of IP broadband services.
The KRG signed the agreement on behalf of the Northern Indigenous Community Satellite Network (NICSN) which was established in 2005 by the KRG, Keewaytinook Okimakanak’s K-Net and the Keewatin Tribal Council, says the press release.
The long-term agreement for multiple C-band transponders on Telesat’s Anik F3 satellite follows a commitment the Government of Canada made last year…
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TORONTO – Canadian actors, writers, musicians and others rallied on Wednesday in Toronto’s Simcoe Park, next to the CBC Broadcast Center, to encourage Canadians to vote for culture on October 14.
“Today we’re showing all parties that culture lives in Canada,” said screenwriter and Writers Guild of Canada (WGC) President Rebecca Schechter (Little Mosque, ‘Da Kink in my Hair). “We’re here to let all Canadians know that they can vote with their hearts and their heads in this election – by voting culture.”
Among those in attendance were songwriter/singer Melanie Doane, screenwriter Suzette Couture, playwright Linda Griffiths, singer Tabby…
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TORONTO – The 2nd annual Insight Entertainment Industries Summit will run October 22-23 at St. Andrew’s Club and Conference Centre in Toronto.
The event is aimed at senior executives and counsels from the film, television, new media, gaming, music and print media industries who are involved in content creation, development or distribution.
The keynote luncheon address will be given by Namir Anani, executive director of Policy Development and Research at the CRTC.
The conference program co-chairs are Alan Sawyer, principal consultant, Two Solitudes Consulting, and Susan Abramovitch, partner, Gowling Lafleur Henderson, LLP.
Topics include issues facing each content genre,…
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OTTAWA – With many Canadians concerned about the economy, environment, and our troops overseas, you’d think culture would not be on the radar in the federal election, but the parties have made promises that could affect broadcasting.
The Conservatives have vowed to change the make-up of the CRTC commissioners to better reflect the regions and francophones. Leader Stephen Harper said the chair position would alternate between English speakers and French speakers, the vice-chair positions (in broadcasting and telecom) would be split with one anglophone and one francophone, at least one-quarter of the commissioners would be French-speaking and would be…
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OTTAWA/GATINEAU – Tickets for the October 29th Telecom Laureate Awards Gala at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Ottawa/Gatineau are now on sale.
The 2008 Telecom laureates who will be honoured are: Jim Balsillie (RIM); Mike Lazaridis (RIM); Carol Stephenson (Stentor, Lucent, Richard Ivey School of Business); David Golden (Telesat Canada); The late David Simmonds and his sons, Robert Simmonds, Gordon Simmonds and Donald Simmonds (Clearnet, Lenbrook Communications).
The 2008 Special Recognition Award winner is the Western government telephone companies and their successor companies for 100 years of service: Manitoba Telephone System (MTS Allstream) – Pierre Blouin, CEO; Alberta…
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OTTAWA – Statistics Canada’s release yesterday of radio listenership data that’s a year old is the final one it will compile, the government’s numbers arm said.
This release (some of which we’ve quoted below for old time’s sake…) was based on a survey of Canadians aged 12 and older. The radio project of the Culture Statistics Program was a joint endeavour of the CRTC, the Department of Canadian Heritage, and Statistics Canada. The basic radio listening data are provided by BBM Canada.
The last television viewing data were released on March 31, 2006, for the fall of 2004.
Radio…
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OTTAWA – Despite complaints about the CRTC’s decision to allow the new owners of Quebec private conventional TV broadcaster to dramatically cut local programming, Minister of Canadian Heritage Josee Verner said late Friday she’s not going to get involved.
The TQS union and the opposition Liberals had demanded the decision to let Remstar Diffusion take over the broadcaster while cutting local news to the bone be referred back to the CRTC for a re-think.
Without Remstar’s bid to purchase, it’s thought that former co-owners Cogeco Inc. and CTVglobemedia were tired of losing money with the station and were considering shutting…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC will put off a review of its benefits policy until after the federal government renders its views on the Canadian Television Fund.
The Commission issued a public notice in July, asking for comments on altering its benefits policy so that some money could be directed to new media initiatives. Currently, when one broadcast company buys another, a certain percentage of the transaction (10% in the case of television companies) must be set aside for public benefits, which are mostly for the production of Canadian content.
However, a number of recent transactions (such as Goldman Sachs’…
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OTTAWA – With the very future of the Canadian Television Fund in question, the CBC along with the independent production community are urging the CRTC to postpone its plans to review funding for new media in September. The CRTC has put out a call for comments (Broadcasting Public Notice CRTC 2008-62) regarding its proposed changes to its public benefits policy that would create new funding streams for new media within the CTF.
In just the last few weeks, the Harper government has cut tens of millions in funding to arts program and has so far given no indication if…
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