Federal Election 2008 – What to ask candidates when they solicit your vote? (Part Three)

CCA Bul­letin 38/08

Sep­tem­ber 17, 2008

In order to assist all those who are pre­oc­cu­pied with the place arts and cul­ture in the cur­rent elec­toral cam­paign, the Cana­dian Con­fer­ence of the Arts (CCA) has iden­ti­fied seven broad areas of prime impor­tance for artists, cre­ators, cul­tural insti­tu­tions and indus­tries. The CCA has devel­oped a set of ques­tions for each issue: these ques­tions can be asked to all can­di­dates when they come knock­ing at the door or par­tic­i­pate in an all party debate.

The final sec­tion of the 2008 Fed­eral Elec­tion Doorstep Kit is devoted to the evo­lu­tion of broad­cast­ing and telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions pol­icy and reg­u­la­tion. The next gov­ern­ment will likely have to address the need for a new approach to Broad­cast­ing Act and of the Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions Act, acknowl­edg­ing the new tech­nolo­gies avail­able to Cana­di­ans. This leg­is­la­tion will call into ques­tion the cul­tural objec­tives included in the Broad­cast­ing Act, which defines the require­ments for Cana­dian invest­ment in the devel­op­ment of Cana­dian pro­gram­ming con­tent, while still estab­lish­ing a com­pet­i­tive mar­ket­place for these ser­vices. As for pre­vi­ous issues cov­ered by the CCA, this set of sug­gested ques­tions is pre­ceded by a short back­grounder on the issue. We encour­age you to dis­sem­i­nate as much as pos­si­ble the replies you may get, either in writ­ing or in a pub­lic forum.

Issue: Broad­cast­ing and Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions in the Sec­ond Millennium

When the cur­rent Broad­cast­ing Act was passed in 1991, the land­scape was con­sid­er­ably sim­pler. Few spe­cialty chan­nels had been licensed, satel­lite deliv­ery to homes was an embry­onic con­cept, the inter­net had not yet invaded our daily lives and the idea of receiv­ing broad­cast style con­tent on a wire­less tele­phone was still the stuff of sci­ence fiction.

Today tele­phone, cable, satel­lite and tra­di­tional broad­cast­ing enti­ties are all in com­pe­ti­tion for an array of ser­vices in the same mar­ket place. The dis­tinc­tion between broad­cast­ers and dis­tri­b­u­tion ser­vices is becom­ing more blurred every day. The Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions Pol­icy Review Panel noted in 2005 that per­haps it is time to develop a sin­gle leg­isla­tive and reg­u­la­tory frame­work for all of these ser­vice providers.

The Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions Act does not speak to Cana­dian con­tent require­ments nor does it require that ser­vice providers invest in the devel­op­ment of Cana­dian con­tent. The Broad­cast­ing Act requires enti­ties licensed under the Act to com­ply with an exten­sive set of cul­tural objec­tives includ­ing invest­ments in the devel­op­ment of Cana­dian programming.

The next gov­ern­ment will undoubt­edly have to deal with this chal­lenge. How does one cre­ate a sin­gle leg­isla­tive and reg­u­la­tory frame­work that pre­serves the cul­tural objec­tives of the Broad­cast­ing Act, while main­tain­ing a com­pet­i­tive mar­ket­place for the deliv­ery of services?

Sug­gested ques­tions

• Does your Party sup­port the cul­tural objec­tives delin­eated in the Broad­cast­ing Act?

• Does your Party sup­port the devel­op­ment of sin­gle leg­isla­tive and reg­u­la­tory frame­work for broad­cast­ing and telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions? If so, how do you pro­pose to bal­ance greater sec­tor com­pe­ti­tion with the cul­tural objec­tives of the Broad­cast­ing Act?

• Does your Party believe that inter­net ser­vice providers should be required to invest in the devel­op­ment of Cana­dian con­tent for all dis­tri­b­u­tion plat­forms?

• Does your Party sup­port the notion of increased and sta­ble fund­ing in the con­text of a long-term Mem­o­ran­dum of Agree­ment with the pub­lic broad­caster as put for­ward by the CBC?