Regulatory rejigs, cultural changes in store as Parliament resumes

Everything old is new again when it comes to telecom and media issues percolating in Ottawa this fall, from reviews and renegotiations of old legislation and trade agreements, to court battles litigating long-simmering personnel disputes and CRTC decisions. Despite a dizzying array of issues to keep sight of in the coming months, from marijuana legalization to tax reform, expect many eyes to find focus on Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly, who has said that the results of her sweeping review of Canadian content in a digital age will be unveiled in September. The review, launched in April 2016, featured a consultation in which 30,000 people participated in a bid to reform the country’s cultural toolkit, where Joly said “everything is on table,” including 26 agencies, policies and funding programs such as the Canada Media Fund, Canadian content rules, and CBC/Radio-Canada. “I think what I have in mind is people have a tendency sometimes to think that we can’t modernize our institutions and it’s too complicated to do so,” Joly said in February while appearing at the Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA) Prime Time in Ottawa conference. “I’d rather take the risk of modernizing the institutions for the good than keeping the status quo.” When asked recently during an investors conference if he was expecting “anything out of this review that will create a headwind or an opportunity," Corus Entertainment Inc. president and CEO Doug Murphy said he believed the results of Joly’s work would be more focused on the export and promotion of Canadian content. “In all candour, it’s been interesting — the last 12 months — in the regulatory file. Going into this year, I thought it would be a pretty light file — it is not, it’s going to be pretty heavy again,” Murphy said. “So for us, it’s just a lot more trips to Ottawa in the coming year. I would like to get clarity as soon as we can, so we can run a business.” In the spring budget, the Liberal government put more emphasis on facilitating an “open and innovative Internet,” announcing its intention — tangential to the heritage minister’s ongoing work — to review and modernize the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Acts, though little information has been forthcoming about what exactly that will entail and when. Consultations are currently running on proposals to improve the work of the Copyright Board, while the Copyright Act is up for its mandated five-year parliamentary review as of November. A consultation on changes to Canada’s intellectual property framework wrapped up Sept. 8. House committees will continue work this fall that takes a closer look at other legislation, such as the access to information, privacy and ethics committee’s study of the Personal Information and Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). The committee has already heard from witnesses on the merits or drawbacks of adopting domestic right-to-be-forgotten rules and bestowing the federal privacy commissioner with order-making and fining power. The same committee will also be starting up its examination of privacy of Canadians at airports, borders and travelling in the United States, which will undoubtedly touch on the sticky issue of border officers searching travellers’ personal devices. Broadband connectivity in rural Canada will be in the spotlight for the House’s industry, science and technology committee. The group had some preliminary discussions in the spring sitting, on the impetus of Conservative MP Earl Dreeshen, but will delve into the issue in earnest this fall. The government is also due to respond to the House of Commons’ heritage committee report summing up its lengthy study of the media and local communities. On the same day the report was released on June 15, both Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Joly shot down one of the report’s 20 recommendations to expand the five-per-cent contribution broadcast distribution undertakings (BDUs) pay into the Canada Media Fund to internet service providers, calling it an “internet tax” that they weren’t interested in implementing. In the Senate, the transportation and communications committee is continuing its work studying automated and connected cars, with a report due for release by the end of the year. These domestic discussions are going on in the shadow of the NAFTA renegotiations, in which Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and Joly have both said that ensuring the cultural exemptions Canada currently enjoys are pivotal to any new agreement. Meanwhile, both U.S. and Mexican authorities have tagged more open access to Canada’s telecom market as an area for change. The third round of negotiations will take place in Ottawa Sept. 23-27. When it comes to what the government is going to be hearing this fall from industry stakeholders, pre-budget submissions indicate that they will be taking a similar tack as previous years. The House finance committee will hold budget-consultation hearings in Ottawa over the next two weeks, before setting out across the country during the weeks of Oct. 2 and Oct. 16. The Canadian Wireless Telecommunication Association (CWTA) is again calling for changes to the tax system to increase the capital cost allowance rate that businesses can claim for depreciable expenses on telecommunications equipment. “Wireless companies need supportive public policy if they are to tackle the challenges posed by signal coverage gaps in geographically challenging and remote areas, massive data throughput requirements brought on by machine-to-machine connectivity, and the need for exceptionally low latency in automated vehicle and healthcare applications,” the group’s Budget 2018 submission said. The CWTA is also looking for a review of the Scientific Research and Experimental Development program, with the eventual return of tax credits that were reduced by five percentage points. The Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC) called for the same points in its pre-budget submission, along with another call for next year’s budget to include investments in 5G and cyber security, among others. Meanwhile, the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) asked the government to extend its private copying levy beyond blank tapes and CDs to “include all media now used to copy works.” Groups have also continued to push for tax parity among suppliers of digital goods, asking for the government to require foreign companies to have to remit or collect sales tax. “Indeed, as consumer preferences increasingly shift to digital options at the expense of physical goods, Canadian firms will be further disadvantage and federal and provincial governments will suffer a corresponding erosion in revenues,” the CWTA said. This fall will be the first full sitting for the new official Opposition leader, Andrew Scheer, who was elected Conservative party leader at the end of May. Scheer has yet to roll out any significant telecom- or broadcasting-related policy stances, though he did throw his support behind an effort for improved roadside wireless coverage in Quebec this summer. He recently named leadership rival Maxime Bernier as his innovation critic. Bernier, a former industry minister, held the role prior to launching his own Conservative leadership bid. The NDP will also have a new face at the helm this fall, with the first round of voting for outgoing leader Tom Mulcair’s successor wrapping up Oct. 1. Depending on how many round of online voting are necessary to pick between the four candidates — MPs Niki Ashton, Charlie Angus and Guy Caron, and Ontario MPP Jagmeet Singh — the winner could be announced Oct. 1, Oct. 8, or Oct. 15. There are also new people at the country’s broadcasting and telecom regulator for both industry and government to get to know this fall. New CRTC chairman Ian Scott took the reins on Sept. 5, while new vice-chairwoman of broadcasting, Caroline Simard, began Sept. 11. New regional commissioners for Ontario and Manitoba/Saskatchewan should also be named in fairly short order. In his first statement released Sept. 7, Scott said the regulator knows “that the Canadian communications industry is prepared to satisfy Canadians’ demand, but also want to earn a reasonable return on their investments.” Scott, along with the Federal Court of Appeal, will have to weigh both of those interests when making a decision on whether to pull back on his predecessors’ decision to ban simultaneous substitution of Canadian advertising for American commercials during the Super Bowl broadcast on Canadian networks. In October, BCE Inc.'s Bell Media and the NFL will come before a judge in Toronto to plead their case that U.S. commercials should not be shown on this side of the border during the February game, which the broadcaster claims led to a 40-per-cent decrease in audience this year and $11-million advertising shortfall. The courts will also be dealing with another CRTC-related matter this fall, as beleaguered former regional commissioner Raj Shoan returns to contest issues surrounding not one, but two, dismissals from his governor-in-council appointed post. His first court date is on Sept. 19 in Toronto. Cabinet ministers have also driven a portion of the CRTC’s upcoming work, with two decisions sent back for reconsideration. In June, Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains told the regulator to review a March ruling prohibiting WiFi-based wireless providers from accessing roaming services offered to operate mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs). And after a hue and cry by members of the Canadian screen-based creative sector and opposition parties, Joly ordered the regulator to take a second look at a May decision that standardized the contributions broadcasters had to make towards funding Canadian programming. Among the issues the CRTC has to reconsider from that decision, specifically, is “how it can be ensured that significant contributions are made to the creation and presentation of original French-language programming and music programming.” — With reporting by Charelle Evelyn at cevelyn@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

Regulatory rejigs, cultural changes in store as Parliament resumes

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