The Trudeau government estimates that the implementation of its Bill C-11 on the modernization of the Broadcasting Act, in order to integrate Internet broadcasting platforms such as YouTube and Spotify, will generate spinoffs of $1 billion. dollars per year.
The Minister of Heritage, Pablo Rodriguez, mentioned this figure on Monday during a testimony before the parliamentary committee which is studying the legislative document.
“It’s not to be denigrated, a billion a year,” he said, answering questions from MPs.
This estimate is an upward revision of the $830 million that Canadian Heritage projected for “online broadcaster contributions to Canadian creators” in a previously released backgrounder.
Mr. Rodriguez referred to the new amount by explaining that revenues from the implementation of Bill C-11 were going to be redirected according to the main orientations targeted by the piece of legislation itself.
“The goals are clear: more money for indigenous production and more money for marginalized communities […] in both official languages and so on,” he said.
He added that the exact allocation of envelopes should be specified later, referring to the holding of consultations.
Thomas Owen Ripley, Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, explained that the calculations made to arrive at the total of $1 billion are based on the obligations that the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) imposes on broadcasters.
“The vast majority would be under obligations to spend on Canadian production, but […] we already know in the context of licensing that there are broadcasters who are asked to spend, for example, on dramas, on children’s programs, on documentaries, and so on. We believe that will be part of these deliberations,” he said.
In addition, Mr. Rodriguez spent a good part of his testimony on Monday denying any assertion that users of platforms would be victimized in their sharing of content.
He broke the sugar on the conservatives, whom he accused of spreading these elements of “misinformation”.
Mr. Rodriguez reiterated that only the commercial portion of uploaded content will be subject to CRTC consideration.
On this subject, Conservative MP Rachel Thomas has repeatedly sought to obtain a figure on an income threshold that would establish that content can be considered commercial.
“You are creating confusion for those watching. [les délibérations de ce comité] because, on the one hand, you say that the income is going to be taken into consideration together with two other criteria and, on the other hand, you say “no, no, no, the income does not have to be considered”” , did she say.
The Minister replied that the question was not one of the CRTC, which is limited to determining “a specific amount”.