Group suing CRTC worried language-minority groups will get left out of consultations, Senate hears

Executives from the French-language music group suing the CRTC are urging senators to reject the commission’s request to remove a requirement to “consult with official language minority communities in Canada when making decisions that could adversely affect them” from the Online Streaming Act. The Senate Committee on Transportation and Communications continued its study of Bill C-11 Wednesday evening. “Too often, we are not consulted or not properly consulted with regard to federal institutions such as the CRTC. This leads to negative consequences, even disastrous consequences, for our communities,” Alliance nationale de l'industrie musicale (ANIM) vice president Natalie Bernardin told senators, according to simultaneous translation. The organization's passion for the issue stems from a 10-year dispute with the commission, which ultimately led to the ANIM suing the CRTC. In 2012, the CRTC ordered satellite broadcaster SiriusXM Canada Holdings Inc. to contribute four per cent of its gross income to Canadian Content Development (CCD) initiatives as part of its licence renewal. A minimum of 20 per cent was to go to Foundation Assisting Canadian Talent on Recordings (FACTOR), 10 per cent to Fondation Musicaction, and 5 per cent to the Community Radio Fund of Canada. The rest, the discretionary contribution, was to be divided equally among Canadian French-language content initiatives and Canadian English-language content initiatives. At one time FACTOR and Musicaction received equal payments. ANIM charged that the new formula caused a significant negative impact on funding of Francophone CCD initiatives and filed a complaint with the Commissioner of Official Languages (COL). The group eventually took the CRTC to court, alleging it did not adequately inform French-language minority communities of the impending licence renewal hearing that would determine the funding, which negatively impact ANIM and the French-language community. ANIM lost its case last year, and it is now before the court of appeal. Bernardin said better communication with the CRTC could have potentially avoided financial harm to Quebec and Acadian artists and their respective organizations. She claimed that between 2013 and 2019, $2.3 million in funding was lost as a consequence of the CRTC’s new allocation structure. Bernardin told senators that Section 5.2 of the act, which forces the CRTC to engage in consultations with OLMCs, will prevent history from repeating itself. In June, the CRTC appeared before the Senate committee during a pre-study of the bill. Senator René Cormier at the time told the CRTC that its request to remove Section 5.2 was “deeply concerning”. CRTC general counsel and deputy executive director Rachelle Frenette told the committee that it was necessary to remove the clause out of legal concerns. “First, it undermines procedural fairness for other participants in our processes. These are equally important groups in the CRTC’s decision-making process, such as Indigenous groups, groups advocating for greater diversity and inclusion in the broadcasting system. We must also not forget the people on whom a commission decision has a direct impact, those who will be subject to specific regulatory obligations,” Frenette told senators at the time. Section 5.2 also lays out several objectives of the consultation, which states, among other things, that the commission shall propose policies, decisions and initiatives that have not been finalized; seek the communities’ opinions with regard to the policies, decisions or initiatives that are the subject of the consultations; provide them with all relevant information on which those policies, decisions or initiatives are based; and provide the communities with feedback, both during the consultation process and after a decision has been made. “Allowing a third round of consultations with OLMCs after the public record of a proceeding is closed grants procedural rights to these groups that are not granted elsewhere,” Frenette told senators in June. “This is reflected in the wording of section 5.2. By allowing these groups to have access to decisions that haven’t yet been finalized, the provision allows OLMCs to have a say in draft decisions, which violates the secrecy of deliberations. This is a fundamental principle in the decision-making of an administrative tribunal.” — Reporting by Jenna Cocullo at jcocullo@thewirereport.ca and editing by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca.

Group suing CRTC worried language-minority groups will get left out of consultations, Senate hears

News | October 6, 2022

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Group suing CRTC worried language-minority groups will get left out of consultations, Senate hears

News | October 6, 2022

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