The stated goal of the Broadcasting Act is to maintain Canada's cultural fabric—thereby strengthening its economic, political, and social structures—by supporting the country's creative industries and ensuring the availability and accessibility of Canadian music and stories, among other things.
[1] On 3 November 2020, Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault introduced legislation (Bill C-10) that would update the Act to include online broadcasting services.
[2] In 1968, the Broadcasting Act would be updated yet again, this time creating the Canadian Radio and Television Commission (CRTC) to replace the BBG.
[4] Amendments were made to the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Act the following year, making the CRBC accountable to Cabinet rather than Parliament, and thus giving the Commission more power over hiring decisions, revenue spending, and station purchases.
Tabling its report, one of the suggestions made by the Commission would be to provide more funds to the CBC via a statutory grant in order to resolve the corporation's negative financial situation.
One of the issues to be addressed by the Committee would be the prevalence of a new technology called community antenna television, in which wired systems take over-the-air programming and retransmit them to households via cable.
As part of the new legislation, the newly created CRTC would replace the BBG as the entity to oversee all aspects of the Canadian broadcasting system.
[2] On 15 January 1970, CRTC Chair Pierre Juneau stated that regulating cable under a federal regulatory authority was in accordance with the objectives of the Broadcasting Act.
The Act imposes a Canadian-owned and controlled system of broadcasting and includes provisions regarding Canadian content in programming and production.
The CRTC addresses issues of media violence, and hate messaging through its regulations for radio, television, speciality services and pay-television.
In this review, the Government would "look to examine issues such as telecommunications and content creation in the digital age, net neutrality and cultural diversity.
"[5] In mid-September later that year, the Governor in Council issued an order to the CRTC to create a report on "new distribution models for broadcasting, and the extent to which they will ensure a vibrant domestic market that supports Canadian content production.
[1][7] The panel also called for the end of advertising on the CBC, while recommending streaming services (like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video) be mandated to fund the creation of Canadian content.
Critics of the proposed legislation have argued that it vests an incredible amount of power to the CRTC, who are unelected regulators and receive very little guidance from Parliament or the government.
[11] University of Ottawa professor Michael Geist acknowledged that the bill removes a number of long-standing policies from the Act that were intended to protect Canada's broadcasting system, including the requirement that all broadcasters be Canadian-owned and controlled, and the expectation that broadcasters make "maximum use, and in no case less than predominant use" of Canadian talent in programming,[12][13][10] The removal of an exception for user-generated content on social media from the bill has also faced criticism for potentially enabling internet censorship; former CRTC commissioner Peter Menzies stated that "granting a government agency authority over legal user generated content — particularly when backed up by the government’s musings about taking down websites — doesn’t just infringe on free expression, it constitutes a full-blown assault upon it and, through it, the foundations of democracy."