CRTC HEARING ON COMMERCIAL RADIO POLICY

CCA Bul­letin 11/06

Feb­ru­ary 16, 2006

In this issue:

• CRTC hear­ing on Com­mer­cial Radio Policy
• James Abbott, new Her­itage Par­lia­men­tary Secretary
• NDP and Bloc Québé­cois Her­itage crit­ics reconfirmed

The Cana­dian Radio Tele­vi­sion and Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions Com­mis­sion (CRTC) will be hold­ing a pub­lic hear­ing on its 1998 Com­mer­cial Radio Pol­icy in Gatineau, Québec on May 15, 2006. The dead­line for inter­ven­tions is March 15 and the Cana­dian Con­fer­ence of the Arts (CCA) intends to par­tic­i­pate in this very impor­tant debate. See: http://www.crtc.gc.ca/

Com­mer­cial radio has tra­di­tion­ally been cast as one of the impor­tant play­ers in the devel­op­ment and pro­mo­tion of the Cana­dian music indus­try, both in terms of air­play and of money ded­i­cated to tal­ent devel­op­ment. The recent deci­sion of the CRTC to allow satel­lite radio in Canada and the con­di­tions of licence attached to this deci­sion have raised seri­ous ques­tions about the cur­rent sys­tem of Cana­dian con­tent reg­u­la­tion and finan­cial sup­port. It is the CCA’s con­vic­tion that the upcom­ing hear­ings have a very impor­tant sig­nif­i­cance for the long-established sys­tem of nur­tur­ing and devel­op­ing Cana­dian musi­cal tal­ent, a sys­tem which has led to so many excep­tional tal­ents being rec­og­nized not only nation­ally but internationally.

The CCA has engaged Garry Neil to help the Sec­re­tariat pre­pare our inter­ven­tion. In the process of defin­ing its posi­tion, the CCA is seek­ing input from all stake­hold­ers in this impor­tant sec­tor of Cana­dian cul­ture. We there­fore ask all of our mem­bers who have views on this issue or who intend to inter­vene in this hear­ing to con­tact us as soon as pos­si­ble so that we can ana­lyze the var­i­ous view­points and for­mu­late a per­ti­nent inter­ven­tion in front of the CRTC. Please con­tact either me or Garry directly to exchange infor­ma­tion and help for­mu­late posi­tions, either by phone at (613) 238‑3561, ext. 12, or by email at alain.pineau@ccarts.ca. or for Garry, at (416) 604‑3326 or garry@neilcraigassociates.com

The CCA’s Pol­icy and Advo­cacy Com­mit­tee will review the final inter­ven­tion, which must be filed by March 15.
JAMES ABBOTT, NEW PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY TO THE MINISTER OF CANADIAN HERITAGE

In Bul­letin 09/06, the CCA reported on the announce­ment of the Hon. Bev Oda as the new Min­is­ter of Cana­dian Her­itage. Late last week, the Rt. Hon. Stephen Harper revealed his choices for Par­lia­men­tary Sec­re­taries and the new Par­lia­men­tary Sec­re­tary to the Min­is­ter of Cana­dian Her­itage is James Abbott (Kootenay-Columbia, BC). The CCA con­grat­u­lates Mr. Abbott on his appoint­ment and looks for­ward to resum­ing a work­ing rela­tion­ship with him and his staff.

Accord­ing to the PMO web­site, “James Abbott was first elected to the House of Com­mons in 1993, and re-elected in 1997, 2000, 2004 and 2006. Most recently, he was Critic for Sport and has been Critic for the Leader of the Gov­ern­ment in the Sen­ate, for Cana­dian Her­itage, and for the Solic­i­tor Gen­eral. He also served on many Stand­ing Committees”.

Other key Par­lia­men­tary Sec­re­tary appoint­ments to Min­istries, whose poli­cies impact the arts and cul­ture sec­tor, include:

• Par­lia­men­tary Sec­re­taries to the Prime Min­is­ter: Jason Ken­ney and Sylvie Boucher
• Par­lia­men­tary Sec­re­tary to the Min­is­ter of Finance: Diane Ablonczy
• Par­lia­men­tary Sec­re­taries to the Min­is­ter of For­eign Affairs: Deepak Obhrai and Peter Van Loan
• Par­lia­men­tary Sec­re­tary to the Min­is­ter of Jus­tice and Attor­ney Gen­eral of Canada: Rob Moore
• Par­lia­men­tary Sec­re­tary to the Min­is­ter of Human Resources and Social Devel­op­ment: Lynne Yelich
• Par­lia­men­tary Sec­re­tary to the Min­is­ter of Indus­try: Colin Carrie
• Par­lia­men­tary Sec­re­tary to the Min­is­ter of Inter­na­tional Trade: Helena Guergis
• Par­lia­men­tary Sec­re­tary to the Min­is­ter of Jus­tice and Attor­ney Gen­eral of Canada: Rob Moore
• Par­lia­men­tary Sec­re­tary to the Pres­i­dent of Trea­sury Board: Pierre Pollievre
• Par­lia­men­tary Sec­re­tary to the Min­is­ter of Trans­port, Infra­struc­ture and Com­mu­ni­ties: Brian Jean

Full bios for all new Par­lia­men­tary Sec­re­tary appoint­ments are avail­able at: http://www.pm.gc.ca/eng/new_team_1.asp. It appears that though Min­is­ters were named to Cab­i­net on Feb­ru­ary 6 for Labour and for National Rev­enue, no Par­lia­men­tary Sec­re­taries have been specif­i­cally assigned to these departments.

LE BLOC QUEBECOIS AND THE NDP ANNOUNCE THEIR RESPECTIVE “SHADOW CABINET” CRITICS FOR CANADIAN HERITAGE

On Feb­ru­ary 10, Mon­sieur Gilles Duceppe announced le Bloc Que­be­cois’ Shadow Cab­i­net for the upcom­ing 39 th Par­lia­ment of Canada and MP Maka Kotto (Saint-Lambert QC) will return as le Bloc’s critic for Cana­dian Her­itage. The CCA con­grat­u­lates Mr. Kotto on his appoint­ment and looks for­ward to resum­ing a work­ing rela­tion­ship with him and his staff.

Mon­sieur Kotto was first elected to Par­lia­ment in 2004 and is a well-recognized actor, writer, come­dian, and direc­tor in Que­bec. He served as the Vice-Chair of the Stand­ing Com­mit­tee on Cana­dian Her­itage dur­ing the pre­vi­ous minor­ity gov­ern­ment. Fur­ther back­ground infor­ma­tion on Mon­sieur Kotto is avail­able, in French only, at: http://www.blocquebecois.org/fr/equipe_detail.asp?ID=137

Infor­ma­tion regard­ing the full mem­ber­ship of le Bloc Que­be­cois’ Shadow Cab­i­net is avail­able, in French only, at:

http://www.blocquebecois.org/archivage/com_duceppe_cabinetfantome_061006.pdf

On Feb­ru­ary 14, the Hon. Jack Lay­ton announced the NDP’s Shadow Cab­i­net and MP Char­lie Angus (Timmins-James Bay, ON) will return as the NDP’s critic for Cana­dian Her­itage. The CCA con­grat­u­lates Mr. Angus on his appoint­ment and looks for­ward to resum­ing a work­ing rela­tion­ship with him and his staff.

Mr. Angus was first elected to Par­lia­ment in 2004 and had the respon­si­bil­ity of being the NDP critic for both the depart­ments of Agri­cul­ture and Cana­dian Her­itage. He is an author, broad­caster, and musi­cian — notably as a mem­ber of the Juno-nominated Griev­ous Angels – and in 1999, he was hon­oured for “Out­stand­ing Con­tri­bu­tion to North­ern Cul­ture” at the Fes­ti­val Boreal in Sud­bury. Fur­ther back­ground infor­ma­tion on Mr. Angus is avail­able at http://www.ndp.ca/charlieangus

It is expected that a Lib­eral Shadow Cab­i­net announce­ment will be made soon, though CCA’s Feb­ru­ary 15 inquiry to the office of Interim Lib­eral Leader the Hon. Bill Gra­ham remains unan­swered as of this writ­ing. CCA will con­tinue to report on future Par­lia­men­tary devel­op­ments, includ­ing the even­tual for­ma­tion of the new Stand­ing Com­mit­tee on Cana­dian Her­itage and the April 4 Speech from the Throne, via our bul­letins once any details are made public.

The Cana­dian Con­fer­ence of the Arts is the country’s largest assem­bly of indi­vid­u­als and orga­ni­za­tions engaged in arts and cul­tural issues, whose com­bined num­bers rep­re­sent close to a quar­ter of a mil­lion Cana­di­ans. As a non-partisan orga­ni­za­tion that strives to con­tribute to the unique char­ac­ter of Cana­dian soci­ety in the cul­tural sec­tor, the CCA works with all polit­i­cal par­ties and MPs rep­re­sented in the House of Commons.