Statement by Minister Rodriguez on the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review What We Heard Report

GATINEAU, July 3, 2019

I thank the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review Panel for its report and all Canadians who took the time to make submissions. Our end goal is clear. If you benefit, you contribute. No more free rides.

Concretely, we will take appropriate measures to ensure that all players, including the Internet giants:

• offer meaningful levels of Canadian content in their catalogues;
• contribute to the creation of Canadian content; and,
• promote Canadian content and make it easily accessible on platforms.

In this context, it will be important to provide the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission with the modern tools it needs in order play its role.

It’s 2019 and the key laws regulating our culture and our communications, predate the internet. This situation is hurting our economy, our workforce, and our culture. We want a system where our creators and our businesses in the cultural sector compete on a level playing field with global Internet giants.

The work being done right now by Janet Yale and her team of experts to review those acts is essential, because it will help us implement a long-term solution. That’s what we announced in Budget 2017 and that’s exactly what we are doing.

When we appointed this panel and assigned it the task of reviewing our country’s communications framework, we knew there was a lot of work ahead. A few days ago, I took a moment with Janet Yale to discuss the urgency to take action. She assured me that the panel’s work is on time and that the government can expect a final report in January 2020 at the latest.

We look forward to receiving this final report. We will take appropriate measures swiftly when we receive the final report.

Canadians must continue to access Canadian stories, created by Canadians in both English and French, on all platforms. We believe that the government has a key role to play in that and, rest assured, we intend to fulfil that role.

Our government made a significant reinvestment in Canadian culture. We stabilized the Canada Media Fund by investing $172 million and we announced $650 million to support independent journalism across the country.

Our government will always stand tall for our culture and be its strongest ally.