NDP and Bloc support C-11, with concerns; Conservatives will seek to amend at committee

Members of Parliament from the Bloc Québécois and the NDP indicated that both parties will support the Liberal Government's new effort to overhaul the Broadcasting Act as it moved to second reading, known as the Online Streaming Act or Bill C-11. The Conservatives, for their part, will not support the bill, but will propose "reasonable amendments" in the bill's consideration in the House of Commons Heritage committee, according to the party's Heritage Critic, John Nater. In his speech on the bill, Nater acknowledged the need for an update to the Broadcasting Act, which has not been substantially changed since 1991. "The Conservative opposition agrees that the existing system is outdated. However, we have watched the government fail and waver in its efforts to modernize the Broadcasting Act, adapt to our new digital reality and prepare for future disruptions that we cannot even predict today," Nater said, according to a translation, referencing the troubled 2021 roll out of C-11's predecessor, C-10. Nater also supported a longstanding broadcaster demand: the elimination of Part II license fees from the CRTC's regulatory authority. In the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government eliminated the fees for broadcasters, citing the revenue challenges created by the pandemic. Nater also pointed to Bill C-11's section 4.2, which the MP described as the "exclusion to the exclusion." While section 4.1 excludes content uploaded to social media services by users, section 4.2 maintains that content on social media platforms that has been broadcast, in whole or in part, by a broadcasting undertaking that is required to be carried on under a licence, or is required to be registered with the Commission but does not provide a social media service," in the language of the bill. "This exclusion to the exclusion is so broad that the government, through the CRTC, could once again regulate wide swathes of content uploaded to social media," Nater said. While the NDP and the Bloc will support the bill, both presented concerns about the bill's text, and said they, too, will seek to amend the bill when it moves to committee. New Democratic Party MP Alexandre Boulerice pointed to what he said is a lack of clarity on how to calculate value of commercial content on social media platforms. "These platforms and social media sites are used a lot for professional and business purposes. That is fine, but we need to make sure that we have a mechanism for determining the value of the commercial use of TikTok or YouTube, for example, and excluding private or personal use," he said, according to a translation. "Based on the preliminary discussions we had with officials from Canadian Heritage, the answer is unclear. They seem to be floundering, unsure how they are going to find a solution. I suspect that they will end up negotiating with each of these platforms." Boulerice also outlined his party's concerns about discoverability in the bill, as the bill explicitly says that it will not alter a platform's algorithms. "I understand that algorithms are also a trade secret. This may be a touchy subject, but I have yet to get a clear answer on how we can achieve this from a technical standpoint without tweaking the algorithms," Boulerice said. The Bloc's René Villemure, while indicating that his party thinks the bill is "extremely important to the creators and people of Quebec and Canada", said that the Government should create a separate digital agency for the regulation of digital content, apart from the CRTC. "We are talking about expanding the CRTC's powers. I wonder if that is the solution. Should we not instead, like other governments, consider creating a separate dedicated agency made up of digital experts?" he said in French, according to a translation. Many MPs familiar with the file were absent from the debate, because it overlapped with a Heritage committee meeting on the impacts of the putative acquisition of Shaw Communications Inc. by Rogers Communications Inc. – Reporting by Michael-Lee Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca and editing by Paul Park at ppark@thewirereport.ca

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NDP and Bloc support C-11, with concerns; Conservatives will seek to amend at committee

Broadcast | February 17, 2022

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