CCA Bulletin 13/10

May 13, 2010

Towards a Canadian national digital strategy?

Just the facts

This week, the federal government launched a nation-wide consultation on the development of a national digital strategy. The announcement was made jointly by Ministers Clement (Industry), Moore (Heritage) and Finley (Human Resources and Skills Development) at the Canada 3.0 Conference on digital media.

Minister Moore said, “Our government is committed to ensuring that creators, inventors and entrepreneurs have the incentives to innovate, the confidence to take risks and the tools to succeed. We recognize the important role the digital media and content sector plays in the digital economy, and we intend to develop a long-term plan that will stand the test of time.”

An invitation has been made to all Canadians to put forward their viewpoint through the government website or by sending a brief to the government by July 9.

The Standing Committee of Heritage started its own consultation on emerging and digital media. The CCA presented its views to the Committee today on what Canadians need coming out of this consultation from a cultural and social perspective. 

The CCA is happy to see that conversations are no longer exclusively focused on building physical infrastructure, but also take into account the conditions necessary for the presence of Canadian culture in the digital universe. The success of our arts, culture and national cohesion will depend on how new legislation will recalibrate the digital factors which permeate all aspects of our lives. Old copyright legislation and dangerous precedents in foreign ownership policy regarding cultural industries could pose serious threats to Canadian “cultural products and services” and cripple their development precisely when the world could be our oyster.  A national strategy must include new tools and strategies for Canadians to gain the maximum benefits from new media and to ensure their right to their own culture. This is why the CCA feels that it is important to cast the debate not only in terms of developing a “Digital Economy Strategy for Canada” but rather, in terms of developing an economic, social and cultural digital strategy for Canadians.

In its presentation to the Standing Committee, the CCA lays out several ways that the digital sphere impacts Canadian culture. Some major areas which require a cohesive policy platform include training and professional development for artists, innovative intellectual property rules through new copyright legislation, investment in Canadian content, and retaining ownership and control of Canadian cultural industries, digital infrastructure and cultural policies. Extending digital literacy to all Canadians is also a major preoccupation: it is no doubt important to give Canadians access to the best performing networks but it is even more important to teach them how to use digital technologies to foster their community life. This is why the CCA supports the creation of multi-media centres across Canada as recently proposed to the CRTC by the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS).

Tell me more

The consultation by the Standing Committee has been well attended by other players within Canada’s arts and culture scene. In his presentation on April 29, Tom Perlmutter, Commissioner and Chair of the National Film Board, spoke eloquently and clearly on the various walls blocking the success of Canada’s digital cultural industries. He reaffirmed the urgency for Canada to adopt a national strategy to harness and foster the power of the digital realm, noting that

“We are unique in the world that our engagement as Canadians is almost overwhelmingly with non-Canadian, with American sites. There is no Canadian owned and operated company in the top ten web destinations. That may have changed recently with CTV's online catch-up television, but that would be for American television offerings. This is in contradiction to the case in the U.K., Australia, France, Italy and many other countries. One of our leading digital executives operating in the private sector notes that Canadians are, and I quote, “drawers of electricity and hewers of bandwidth.” We are in danger of replicating the situation that currently exists in broadcasts where great sums of money flow south to buy programming and Canadian content is the poor stepchild.”

Perlmutter, along with many other witnesses, touched on points which are necessary to recognize if a national strategy is to be pursued. The shift of audience engagement from television to other media platforms like mobile and internet is fundamental.  What follows is the understanding that intellectual property and Canadian content production will not be safe from international players.

Maureen Parker, Executive Director of the Writers Guild of Canada, stated that:

“The national digital strategy must: one, ensure that there is sufficient funding to create professionally-produced digital entertainment; two, ensure that Canadian-owned and controlled enterprises exist to support Canadian content and have appropriate incentives or requirements to do so; and three, amend the Copyright Act and support terms of trade to ensure that fair revenue streams flow back to content creators.”

It is clear, from some witnesses, that one of the major changes which need to occur is the funding and investment in the digital economy, not only in terms of infrastructure but in terms of content development. Creative enterprises must be able to operate their new business models within a changing paradigm, and not be forced to fit within the rubric of the past. For example, Jeff Anders, CEO and founder of The Mark News, described to the Committee the problems his company is facing:

“The Mark, for example, has reviewed at least 70 different grant programs and qualifies for surprisingly few. If we were a not-for-profit organization, or if we needed to make large capital investments in equipment, or if we printed our content on paper, we could have access to a whole slew of grants and loans. But that is not what we are, it is not what we are doing. There is an incongruity between Canada's objectives, i.e. the urgent investment in all things digital and the incentives being laid out for innovators and entrepreneurs like The Mark. We don't need equipment. We need operating support, funds to keep us going while we experiment and fail on the way to finding sustainable models. We need support making digital work, not encouragement to look backward toward paper. We need a shift from protection to encouragement, to propulsion.”

Other countries have developed national strategies through consultation and strategic planning. Digital Britain is a national approach to create content and portals for Britons to engage online.  Will Canada develop a comprehensive one before it is too late?

What can I do?

Make sure the government and the three Ministers directly concerned (James Moore, Tony Clement and Diane Finley) hear loud and clear from artists and content creators what is needed to ensure Canadians have access to their own culture in the digital environment. To participate, take part in the idea forum or by sending a formal submission by July 9, 2010. Before you join in, you can learn about the issues by reading the consultation paper. Also, don’t miss an opportunity to sensitize your own MP.

You can also help the CCA prepare its own submission by sending your views to jessica.litwin@ccarts.ca.