C-11 allows Canadian cultural sector to avoid becoming “service industry”: Canada Media Fund

Whether or not enough content is produced in Canada by the likes of Netflix Inc., Walt Disney Co., or Amazon.com Inc. is a less important question than whether that content -- though it might be produced in Canada -- is ultimately owned by Canadians, according to the president and CEO of the Canada Media Fund, Valerie Creighton. Speaking Tuesday to the Senate’s Transport and Communications committee -- which is currently studying the Online Streaming Act, also known as Bill C-11 -- Creighton pushed back on a number of spending figures offered by committee chair Leo Housakos, who pointed out that large foreign streamers accounted for the majority of production in Canada in the past year. “The theme that we’ve often heard repeatedly about Bill C-11, is the importance that streaming platforms contribute their fair share into the Canadian cultural system,” Housakos said, but pointed out that a collection of foreign companies spent some $5 billion in Canada in 2021, which he said accounted for more than half of all production, and 90 per cent of the growth. “Why do you believe that they’re not paying their fair share?” Housakos asked Creighton, pointing to the hiring and economic growth generated by the foreign investment. “When you make it for someone else, you serve someone else,” Creighton said, referring to cultural content. The CMF president posited a scenario in which a service production -- made in and about Canada with a Canadian crew, but owned by a foreign entity -- required an additional investment of unforeseen funding, foreign entities would be less willing to fork over the cash. “The issue is: if we continue to continue foreign service production as totally Canadian, all of the is owned by foreign companies, the revenue owned -- in the majority -- by that production goes outside the country,” Creighton said. “So our producers here … become a service industry to a foreign country,” she said, and added that a balance had to be struck between the scenario presented by Housakos, and the scenario she presented. Housakos pushed back by likening Creighton’s proposal for stricter Canadian content rules as like professional hockey players being restricted to playing for Canadian NHL teams. Earlier in the hearing, senior legal counsel from the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) Martin Lavallée argued that as revenue from music publishing rights moved more and more towards streaming platforms and away from traditional radio or television, Bill C-11 was essential to recoup payments for Canadian artists. “Online distributors are already deciding who’s going to hear what. They already play curatorial and editorial roles and they should fulfill those roles by showcasing Canadians to Canadians,” Lavallée said in French, according to simultaneous translation. Lavallée said that SOCAN advocates the passage of the bill without any amendments, so “that it can adapt to future online services whose models for delivering content are not yet known.” “A bill that is tailored to only services and operations today, or that carves out specific services as they exist today, will not be flexible enough or have staying power for the future of broadcasting online.” — Reporting by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca and editing by Paul Park at ppark@thewirereport.ca Correction: An earlier version of the headline incorrectly referred to the Canada Media Fund as the Canadian Media Fund.

C-11 allows Canadian cultural sector to avoid becoming “service industry”: Canada Media Fund

News | October 25, 2022

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C-11 allows Canadian cultural sector to avoid becoming “service industry”: Canada Media Fund

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