The adoption of Bill C-11 “has stalled in the Senate”, deplores the Bloc Québécois, which is calling for its official adoption as soon as possible. The study of this new version of the Broadcasting Act, aimed at forcing the digital giants to give more space to Canadian artists, has been drawn out for more than five months.
Bill C-11, passed by the House of Commons last June, has since been studied in fine detail by the Senate, several members of which have expressed reservations in recent months about the proposed legislative changes. These seek to compel online streaming giants, such as Netflix, Spotify and YouTube, to contribute to the creation and delivery of Canadian cultural content, such as music and film, which is currently swallowed up there. under an avalanche of mega-productions, especially American ones.
Over the past five months, the Senate has granted more than 40 hours of hearings before the Standing Committee on Transport and Communications to study this bill clause by clause and hear from numerous witnesses. Several senators are now calling for amendments that will also have to be considered. However, time is running out to pass this bill, eagerly awaited by the Canadian artistic community, insists the Bloc Québécois MP for Drummond, Martin Champoux, in an interview at the To have to.
“We are now five months after the adoption of the bill in the House of Commons. And there, it procrastinates and it stalls in the Senate, which is trying to improve Bill C-11, ”sighs Mr. Champoux. However, “it has been dragging on for a long time, artists have been waiting for this bill” first tabled in the House of Commons last February, he recalls. “At some point, we’re going to have to deliver the baby. »
The elected official thus believes that the bill, which has raised an outcry from the giants of the Web in recent months, should be sent as soon as possible to the House of Commons “to be adopted with the royal seal” in the next weeks. Faced with a Canadian cultural industry “out of breath”, it would be better to implement this bill “immediately”, “even if it means reopening it in the coming years” if improvements need to be made. Because, recalls Mr. Champoux, “any bill is perfectible”.
Moreover, the Bloc Québécois is calling for this bill to be reviewed every five years so that federal elected officials consider the improvements that could be made to it, at a time when the cultural industry is evolving more rapidly than ever. “We have to review it to make sure that everything is correct, that everything is related to where this industry will be,” adds Mr. Champoux.
But it is still necessary, as a first step, to adopt the bill which is already on the table, ideally before the holiday season, underlines the federal elected representative, while recognizing that such a deadline may fall within the ” wishful thinking”.