By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – In our last story about Bill C-10, the long-awaited Act to amend the Broadcasting Act, Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault wanted to proceed quickly to and through second reading. Passage from second reading is normally a prerequisite before a bill goes to the Heritage Committee for study.
That was two weeks ago. Word is that debate could resume Friday, December 4, along with Bill C-11 on Privacy Protection.
Considering the House will break for the Holidays on December 11, there is slight chance the Committee will start sitting this year, possibly with government presenting the bill to…
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By Robert Ghiz
CANADA’S REGULATORS HAVE long recognized that facilities-based competition is the best way to achieve the objectives of high-quality services, wide network coverage, and affordable prices. Favouring facilities-based competition has resulted in billions of dollars of private investment, building the fastest mobile wireless networks in the world. Even in rural areas Canada’s networks perform better than the overall networks in most other countries.
This combination of quality and coverage, together with an intensely competitive mobile wireless market evidenced by a steady decline in prices, is why a recent report commissioned by the U.S. wireless industry association…
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By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – Foreign-based vendors with no physical presence in Canada do not have to charge Canadians GST/HST on sales of digital products or services — like mobile apps, online video gaming (not to mention purchases within apps and games) and video and music streaming. Nor do they pay taxes on earnings from Canadian consumers.
In today’s economic statement from the federal government, however, foreign-based vendors selling digital products or services to consumers in Canada (such as Netflix, Spotify and others) will be required to register for, collect and remit the GST/HST on their taxable sales to Canadian consumers.
The…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – The task of figuring out how the different broadband programs of the federal government and the CRTC will be co-ordinated was made a little easier by the regulator’s chairman Ian Scott on Thursday.
Posed with a question from a member of parliament about whether the CRTC should have control of the entire broadband budget — not just the regulator’s own $750-million Broadband Fund — Scott said the different programs have different focuses, and funding could come down to how those programs measure connected areas.
Earlier this year, rural economic development minister Maryam Monsef announced the UBF has…
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“If you think it’s right, just keep at it”
COLETTE WATSON IS ONE of the most accomplished Canadian broadcasters in history and despite her voluntary departure from Rogers earlier this year, she’s not done.
Watson (above) left her position as senior vice-president of television and broadcast operations in June and left behind a legacy of success. Recent wins included her team’s successful lobbying of the CRTC to let vertically-integrated companies move funds from community TV to over-the-air TV (which, along with cost-cutting, made CityTV profitable again), and shocking many by winning OMNI Television a new must-carry licence, securing its future.
These were…
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Multiple funds, lack of co-ordination, remains a strumbling block
By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Funding from Indigenous Services Canada for broadband on reserves has been limited because connectivity objectives often compete with other priority projects, such as energy, roads and bridges, according to the ministry.
The federal government also hasn’t targeted funding to ISC’s First Nation Infrastructure Fund specifically for those broadband objectives in federal budgets 2016, 2018 or 2019, the ministry said in response to an order paper question from Conservative MP Cathy McLeod of Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo.
“While connectivity projects are eligible for funding from the First Nation Infrastructure Fund, they often receive…
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By Doug Barrett
FOR SOMEONE AS QUEASY as me worrying major chunks of the Canadian broadcasting system might end up in the hands of foreign owners, Denis Carmel’s article (Will Bill C-10 do away with Canadian Ownership?) last week was not particularly reassuring.
Mr. Carmel quoted a statement provided by the Department of Canadian Heritage which said:
“The Bill makes no changes regarding the requirements for Canadian ownership and control of traditional broadcasters. The CRTC will continue to license traditional broadcasters. Only Canadian individuals, companies and organizations, as defined in the Direction to the CRTC on the Ineligibility of Non-Canadians, will…
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Why only MVNOs can check the market power of the incumbents (Part Two)
By Tim Denton
THE SECOND MAJOR PORTION of the MacDonald-Menzies argument (part one can be read here) against mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) is what I call the transmission argument. It holds that, by preventing conditions that would allow effective MVNOs, the profits left in the large carriers will be translated into investment in less profitable or unprofitable rural and remote broadband access.
Why would any rational capitalist organization reduce its return on investment to satisfy the distributive goals of the Canadian state? In various times, management of…
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HALIFAX — Develop Nova Scotia, a Crown corporation responsible for developing and implementing a strategy to provide high-speed Internet access across the province, today announced the expansion of several existing contracts for Internet for Nova Scotia Initiative projects, which will provide access to an additional 6,700 homes and businesses.
Projects associated with these scope expansions will reduce the number of remaining unserved or underserved homes and businesses by more than half, says Develop Nova Scotia’s press release. The contract extensions are for project agreements with ISPs Mainland Telecom and Bell Canada which will provide connections to approximately 30…
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TORONTO — In an unprecedented move, a coalition of former CBC management executives, journalists, producers and other employees have sent a letter to the public broadcaster’s board of directors asking them to end CBC’s Tandem, a “dedicated service for branded content” which the letter writers say produces advertising indistinguishable from journalism.
According to a press release issued today by the former employees, the CBC board has agreed to discuss the new Tandem venture at a meeting on Wednesday with CBC president Catherine Tait and vice-president Barb Williams.
Among the former CBC employees who have signed the letter to the board…
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