Unions call on Senate to pass Online Streaming Act

A collection of labour unions appeared before the Senate Committee on Transport and Communications Tuesday urging the passage of the Online Streaming Act, Bill C-11. Randy Kitt, media sector director for the Unifor’s nation union, pointed out that broadcasting has been seeing declining revenues for the past nine years. This affects broadcasters’ ability to produce news programming. “Bell, Rogers, Shaw and Quebecor are companies we love to hate,” he stated. “But they are not so rich that we should just assume they will continue to fund local news as they continue to lose money.” The union executive referred to the Local Programming Improvement Fund, which began in 2009 and which the CRTC abolished in 2014. He urged the return of a similar program to boost local and national news coverage on television and radio. Better news coverage is needed to heal a divided society, Kitt maintained. “We are more polarized than ever,” he said. “But a strong Canadian media can build community.” The Writers Guild of Canada focused on dramatic and comedy productions. C-11 is necessary to ensure their survival. “The Canadian broadcasting system needs regulation if it is to exist. The current Broadcasting Act needs to be updated,” Neal McDougall, director of policy for the guild told Senators. “We must ensure that the major online streaming services are in that regulatory framework if we want to support Canadian content in key genres such as drama, kids programming and documentaries.” The president of the guild reported that many scriptwriters are decamping for the United States because Canadian production is in decline. “We are at risk of losing an entire generation of storytellers.” Alex Levine, himself a scriptwriter, said. Also sounding the cultural alarm was the president of the Screen Composers Guild of Canada, John Welsman. “Our view is that Canadian art is made by Canadian artists and Canadian content is made by Canadian creators,” he said. “That’s not an ideology, it’s just sound business. As Netflix told you a couple of weeks ago, it’s about copyright.” He pointed out that foreign content creators are not altruistic when they set up shop in this country. “The global content giants are not producing film and television shows here out of patriotism for Canada,” he asserted. “They’re producing here because of generous tax credits, a favourable exchange rate and most importantly our world-class creators.” In the hearing’s second hour, the panel heard from the Canadian Union of Public Employees and the Radio Canada International (RCI) Action Committee. The president of the provincial council of the communications sector of CUPE warned rough times are ahead if the bill does not get through. “It’s one minute to midnight. There needs to be a healthier competitive environment with multinational online companies that act like a steamroller with no regulatory obligations.” Tulsa Valin-Landry said according to a translation. “The bill must level the playing field to protect our cultural sovereignty and the nearly that 50,000 jobs Canadian broadcasters provide.” Things will only get worse now that Netflix and Disney+ have indicated they are going after advertising in their streaming services, he added. Wojtek Gwiazda of the RCI Action Committee used his time to urge amendments to the broadcasting act that would restore RCI as an international broadcaster. Last year the CBC, which administers RCI, cut English and French programming. RCI now only broadcasts in international languages. The problems began in the 1990s, when CBC dipped into RCI’s funds to make up for budget cuts imposed by the federal government on the public broadcaster. Things continue to go downhill. “Last year RCI’s popular website was revamped–badly–and is now being used to promote CBC and Radio-Canada’s domestic programming,” Gwiazda told the committee. “CBC/Radio-Canada’s priorities or budget constraints should not determine RCI’s role and mandate. That decision should only be made by Parliament.” –Reporting by Paul Park at ppark@thewirereport.ca and editing by Jenna Cocullo at jcocullo@thewirereport.ca.

Unions call on Senate to pass Online Streaming Act

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Unions call on Senate to pass Online Streaming Act

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