Online streaming services will require more content that addresses LGBT2Q and racialized communities.
Canadians increasingly access their music, television shows and films through online broadcasting services. However, unlike traditional broadcasters, these online services have not been required to contribute to the creation, production, and distribution of Canadian music and stories.
Canada’s legislation must keep pace with technological change, to ensure that Canadian content producers and creators are well supported. Online broadcasters must contribute their fair share. To address this need, Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Canadian Heritage, today introduced amendments to the Broadcasting Act that will further support Canadian film and music industries and create good, middle-class jobs across the country.
These amendments will require online broadcasters to contribute to the Canadian broadcasting system and will provide the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) with the modern tools it needs to keep up with technological changes.
The Bill also provides that the Canadian broadcasting system should reflect the needs and interests of all Canadians—including Francophones and Anglophones, Indigenous Peoples, Canadians from racialized communities, and Canadians of diverse ethnocultural backgrounds, socioeconomic statuses, abilities and disabilities, sexual orientations, gender identities and expressions, and ages.
More precisely, the Government will:
- confirm that online broadcasting is covered under the Act;
- update broadcasting and regulatory policies to better reflect the diversity of Canadian society, including gender equality, LGBTQ+ and racialized communities, persons with disabilities, and Indigenous Peoples;
- create a more flexible approach to regulation that allows the CRTC to establish rules for all broadcasting services that operate in Canada, including rules that create more sustainable sources of funding for Canadian stories;
- modernize the CRTC’s enforcement powers; and,
- update oversight and information-sharing provisions to reinforce the CRTC’s role as a modern and independent regulator.
“Canadians have a right to recognize themselves in the music they listen to and the television they watch. We are proposing major changes to the Broadcasting Act in order to ensure online broadcasting services that operate in Canada contribute to the creation, production and distribution of Canadian stories.”—The Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Canadian Heritage
These amendments respond to urgent calls for action and are an important first step in modernizing the Broadcasting Act. We are committed to further action to to fully modernize the broadcasting system and to support creation of Canadian audio and audiovisual content for the digital age.
The BroadcastingAct outlines Canada’s broadcasting policy, defines the role of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission and sets out the mandate of CBC/Radio-Canada. The Act is a key instrument in supporting Canada’s creative industries and in ensuring that Canadian music and stories are available and accessible
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