The Liberal government must curb CRTC powers under a YouTube regulation bill, says a coalition of unions and publishers. Bill C-11 An Act To Amend The Broadcasting Act would grant the Commission too much authority without oversight, it said..“Stakeholders expressed concern with the increased latitude given to the CRTC to determine the precise obligations to which broadcasting undertakings will be subject,” said a report by the Coalition for the Diversity of Cultural Expressions. “The fears are varied from the lack of expertise in the CRTC to oversee a greater number of undertakings in a complex and changing environment to what seems to be a bias towards certain players in the sector.”.“The Coalition shares some of these concerns,” wrote staff. The group represents Access Copyright, the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA), Association of Canadian Publishers, Canadian Federation of Musicians, Directors Guild, Screen Composers Guild and others..Blacklock's Reporter said Bill C-11 would see the Canadian Radio Television and Telecommunications Commission regulate commercial internet programmers like Netflix. “Commercial” is not defined..The Coalition in a submission to the Senate communications committee said the bill should be amended to mandate public hearings on CRTC rulings, and allow petitioners to challenge Commission decisions at cabinet. “It seems important to us that the government should not deprive itself of the power to intervene if it feels the CRTC is deviating from the direction it considers appropriate,” wrote the Coalition..Konrad von Finckenstein, former chair of the CRTC, in June 21 testimony at the Senate committee said the bill granted “vast powers” to the Commission..von Finckenstein is a director of the Internet Society’s Canadian chapter that complained Bill C-11 “is based on the tragic illusion all audio and audio-visual content on the internet is a program and any person who transmits a program on the internet is a broadcaster rather than a communicator.”.“The CRTC should not forget it is Canadian consumers who choose what we want to watch,” said von Finckenstein. “This choice is driven by market forces.”.Ian Scott, chief executive of the CRTC, in 2021 testimony at the Commons heritage committee said he considered the Commission had authority to regulate all internet video from Netflix to YouTube. “We have regulation over all programming and programming is very widely defined,” said Scott..“The Commission has looked, three times in total dating back twenty years, at whether or not it would be desirable or necessary to regulate content delivered over the internet,” said Scott. “In the past the Commission has concluded regulating it would not meaningfully contribute to the broadcasting system. Now the world has changed.”
