Joly notes creator ‘anxiety’ over CRTC licence renewal decision

Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly acknowledged the “anxiety” members of the creative community are experiencing following the CRTC’s licence renewal decision, but didn’t give any hints as to if she might ease that discomfort during a Friday afternoon live-streamed interview with Huffington Post Canada. During the interview, Joly was asked multiple times about the regulator’s recent decision to standardize requirements for Canadian programming expenditures (CPEs) at 30 per cent and programs of national interest (PNIs) at five per cent, which some have said will lower the actual investment and ultimately jeopardize Canadian production. “I understand that there is anxiety in the sector,” Joly said, repeating that department staff have been tasked with studying the impacts of the May 15 decision. She added: “And I really hope that people participate in the conversation and have their own points of view given because it’s important to understand the impacts of that decision.” Some of that participation is coming in the form of two petitions requesting that the minister send the CRTC’s decision back for review. One, spearheaded by NDP heritage critic Pierre Nantel, also calls for an “immediate freeze on CRTC decisions” until Joly has unveiled the results of the review of Canadian cultural institutions in a digital world, as well as for the appointment of an “activist” CRTC chair to lead a regulator “that’s not afraid of the Internet and that champions Canadian culture and content on all platforms.” According to a Wednesday post on Nantel’s Twitter account, the petition had amassed 1,700 signatures. On Wednesday, an e-petition to be tabled in the House of Commons was initiated, which was sponsored by Liberal MP Julie Dabrusin. It calls for a review of the CRTC’s licence renewals decision and for the minister to “fill the vacancies at the CRTC with diverse individuals who will bring experience and in-depth knowledge of both the media production sector and federal policy to ensure Canada’s screen-based production sector will continue to thrive and grow.” As of Friday afternoon, it had amassed 1,663 signatures. During the interview, Joly also couched the unease as a consequence of the greater digital landscape shift. “Ultimately, the pace of digital disruption is so fast and people’s consumption of content — information, entertainment, music, books, films — is following these changes of technology and our entire model is based on legislation and policies that predate the Internet. So we need to modernize,” Joly said. “Meanwhile we know there is anxiety because change can be seen as not necessarily favourable to certain parties within the sector.” — With reporting by Charelle Evelyn at cevelyn@thewirereport.ca and editing by Ahmad Hathout at ahathout@thewirereport.ca

Joly notes creator ‘anxiety’ over CRTC licence renewal decision

Broadcast | June 9, 2017

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Joly notes creator ‘anxiety’ over CRTC licence renewal decision

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