Broadcasting sector reacts to O’Toole victory

The election of Erin O'Toole as federal opposition leader late Sunday night makes "the threat of CBC privatization more real," according to Friends of Canadian Broadcasting executive director Daniel Bernhard. During his campaign for the Conservative party leadership, O'Toole repeatedly called for deep cuts to CBC/Radio-Canada, cutting funding entirely for CBC Digital, and halving funding for CBC's English-language television. The goal, O'Toole said in a video posted to his social media accounts in February, is to "fully privatize" the broadcaster's funding by the end of his first mandate as Prime Minister. Bernhard said in a phone interview with the Wire Report that with the possibility of a fall election, "a guy who is promising to privatize the CBC has a very good shot at becoming Prime Minister." Canadian Media Guild national president Carmel Smyth said that “we hope to convince Erin O'Toole of the value of public broadcasting, and the vital role CBC/Radio-Canada plays in informing and uniting the country. O’Toole has openly shared his support for CBC/Radio-Canada service for Quebecers, we hope he is able to see Canadians outside Quebec also deserve public media service." The guild represents the majority of CBC journalists in Canada outside Quebec. "We are happy to share with Mr. O’Toole years of data showing how much Canadians value public broadcasting, and how communities across the country continue to rely on CBC/Radio-Canada for TV, Radio and online news, and programming that reflects their realities," Smyth said in a statement emailed to the Wire Report. O'Toole has also criticized the Liberal government's plan to introduce legislation aimed at content and taxation regulations for web giants like Netflix Inc., Facebook Inc., and Alphabet Inc., calling the plan "Justin Trudeau's regulation of the internet." In an email to the Wire Report, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters congratulated O'Toole on his nomination as leader of the party, and said it looks forward to engaging O'Toole on "the crisis facing local media and what it means for Canadian communities and democracy." The CAB also said in the statement that the ability to maintain an infrastructure for private broadcasting has "been chipped away over the last 15 years because of structural changes in the advertising market and the inequitable taxation and regulatory treatment of foreign-owned online media," an apparent reference to the web giants. In July, the CAB asked the CRTC for a package of emergency COVID-19 relief on programming expenditure regulations because of "massively reduced" revenues in the second half of the year. Bernhard pointed to the regulation of the web giants as a necessary step to ensure the health of the Canadian broadcast sector. "Our broadcasting industry is going bankrupt, thanks to COVID-19, but other developments didn't help. In this time of pandemic with large budget deficits, et cetera, having a billionaire American company be tax exempt, while their Canadian competitors are struggling to survive, just doesn't make sense," he said, adding that the regulation should be a "conservative value." "Conservatives who value simple government that sets rules and then gets out of the way and applies them equally to everybody would say that we should have one law for all of our broadcasters. It doesn't matter whether they come to your television through the internet or through a cable or through an antenna," Bernhard said. — With reporting by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca and editing by Adam Langenberg at alangenberg@thewirereport.ca

Broadcasting sector reacts to O’Toole victory

Broadcast | August 24, 2020

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Broadcasting sector reacts to O’Toole victory

Broadcast | August 24, 2020

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