ARCHIVED - Broadcasting Notice of Consultation CRTC 2011-379-3

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Additional references: 2011-379, 2011-379-1, 2011-379-2, 2011-379-4, 2011-379-5 and 2011-379-6

Ottawa, 5 September 2012

Notice of hearing

19 November 2012 (previously 12 September 2011, then 4 June 2012)
Gatineau, Quebec

Licence renewals for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s French- and English-language services

Change of hearing date and of deadline for submission of interventions/answers and replies

New deadline for submission of interventions/answers: 5 October 2012
New deadline for submission of replies: 15 October 2012

Revised plans for organization of the hearing

Amendments to applications

[Submit an intervention/comment/answer or view related documents]

Further to Broadcasting Notices of Consultation 2011-379, 2011-379-1 and 2011-379-2, the Commission announces the following changes regarding the date of the hearing and deadlines for the submission of interventions/answers and replies to the interventions/answers:

The Commission will hold a hearing commencing on 19 November 2012 at 9:00 a.m. at the Conference Centre, Portage IV, 140 Promenade du Portage, Gatineau, Quebec, to consider the applications by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation/Société Radio-Canada (the Corporation) to renew the broadcasting licences for the following services:

Issues under consideration

At the November hearing, the Commission will consider, along with the Corporation’s applications and any amendments to those applications, the issues originally announced in Broadcasting Notice of Consultation 2011-379. Further, as announced in a Commission letter dated 18 May 2012, the Corporation’s applications to amend the licences of Espace Musique, Radio 2, and their affiliated stations to permit national advertising will be considered as part of the renewal of these licences. Moreover, the Commission will discuss the delivery of the Corporation’s services to official language minority communities (OLMCs).

In Broadcasting Notice of Consultation 2011-379, the Commission indicated that it considered the following issues of importance for the public hearing:

• the role of the national public broadcaster within the context of the Broadcasting Act:
  • equivalent quality in French and English;
  • shared national consciousness and identity;
  • reflection of OLMCs; and
  • regional reflection;
• the Corporation’s overall strategy;
• the length of the next licence term;
• the applicability of the group-based approach to the Corporation’s services;
• digital transition;
• balance in news reporting;
• the provision of services to the Northern regions;
• access to services by people with disabilities;
• complaints from the public;
• reporting requirements; and
• terms of trade agreements.

A more detailed description of these issues can be found in Broadcasting Notice of Consultation 2011-379.

Organization of the hearing

The deadline for submission of interventions/answers is 5 October 2012. The deadline for the submission of replies by the Corporation is 15 October 2012.

In addition to considering the above, the Commission will consider the interventions/answers and replies already submitted and placed on the public file for the postponed September 2011 hearing, as noted in Broadcasting Notice of Consultation 2011-379-1. It will also consider the record of the online consultation initiated by Broadcasting Notice of Consultation 2011-379, the transcript of which has been placed on the public file, which is available on the Commission’s website at www.crtc.gc.ca under “Public Proceedings.” The Commission does not require any party who submitted an intervention/answer in response to Broadcasting Notice of Consultation 2011-379 to resubmit its intervention/answer. However, any such party may submit a new intervention/answer should it wish to do so.

The Commission has also revised its plans for the organization of the hearing, and will now conduct it in the following manner:

1) The Corporation will make a presentation on corporate issues, followed by questions from the Commission.

2) The Corporation will make a presentation on matters related to its French-language broadcasting services, followed by questions from the Commission.

3) The Corporation will make a presentation on matters related to its English-language broadcasting services, followed by questions from the Commission.

4) Interveners will make presentations, followed by questions from the Commission.

5) The Corporation will then reply.

Amendments to applications

The Corporation has added key proposals to its Espace Musique and Radio 2 applications that were originally presented in Broadcasting Notice of Consultation 2011-379 (changes are in bold). That notice should be consulted for a full description of the key proposals pertaining to all the Corporation’s other services.

How to participate

As noted above, the hearing will be held in the National Capital Region. However, parties may participate from the Commission’s regional offices via videoconference. Parties interested in doing so are asked to indicate, at the time they file their interventions, the regional office where they wish to appear. A list of the Commission’s regional offices is included in this notice.

The Commission will consider requests by parties who cannot appear at one of the Commission’s regional offices to participate from another location, where circumstances may warrant, via telephone or videoconference. Parties must justify their request and provide reasons why telephone or videoconference from another location would be necessary.

Procedure

Deadline for interventions or answers

5 October 2012

Deadline for replies by the licensee

15 October 2012

The new Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission Rules of Practice and Procedure, SOR/2010-277 (the Rules of Procedure), set out, among other things, the rules for filing, content, format and service of interventions and answers of respondents, the procedure for filing confidential information and requesting its disclosure, and the conduct of the public hearing. Accordingly, the procedure set out below must be read in conjunction with the Rules of Procedure and its accompanying documents, which can be found on the Commission’s website under “CRTC Rules of Practice and Procedure.”

An intervention or an answer from a respondent must be filed with the Commission and served on the applicant on or before the above-mentioned date. An answer from a respondent must also be served on any other respondent. In accordance with the Rules of Procedure, the applicant may file a reply within 10 days after the deadline for the filing of the answer or the deadline for intervening in the proceeding. The Commission cannot be held responsible for postal delays and will not notify a party whose submission is received after the deadline date. The submission will not be considered by the Commission and will not be part of the public file.

The intervention or answer must include one of the following statements in either the first or the last paragraph:

1.   I request to appear at the public hearing.
2.   I do not want to appear at the public hearing.

The applicant, respondents and interveners are permitted to coordinate, organize and file, in a single submission, interventions of other interested persons who share their position but do not wish to appear at the hearing as a “Joint Supporting Intervention.” More information on how to do so and a template for the covering letter to be filed by the parties can be found in Changes to certain practices for filing interventions – Expansion of filing practices to include the filing of joint supporting comments for broadcasting policy proceedings, Broadcasting Information Bulletin CRTC 2010-28-1, 10 December 2010.

Interventions and answers will be considered by the Commission and will form part of the public record of the proceeding without further notification to parties, provided the procedures set out in the Rules of Procedure and this notice have been followed. Parties will be contacted only if their submissions raise procedural questions.

Interventions or answers must be submitted to the Secretary General of the Commission in only one of the following formats:

by using the
[Submit an intervention/comment/answer or view related documents]

or

by mail to
CRTC, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0N2

or

by fax at
819-994-0218

A true copy of each intervention or answer from a respondent must be sent to the applicant and, in the case of a respondent to an application, to any other respondent.

The Commission advises those who file and serve by electronic mode to exercise caution when using e-mail for service of documents, as it may be difficult to establish that service has occurred.

Parties must ensure that, before initiating service through electronic mode, they will be able to satisfy the Commission, upon request, that service was completed. The sender must keep proof of the sending and the receipt of the document for 180 days after the day on which it is filed.

Submissions longer than five pages should include a summary.

Each paragraph of the submission should be numbered. In addition, where the intervention is filed by electronic means, the line ***End of document*** should be entered following the last paragraph of the document, as an indication that the document has not been altered during electronic transmission.

Interventions and answers must clearly identify the application referred to and indicate whether parties support or oppose the application, or, if they propose changes to it, include the facts and grounds for their proposal.

If parties wish to appear at the oral phase of the hearing, they must provide reasons why their written interventions or answers are not sufficient and why an appearance is necessary. Parties requiring communication support must state their request on the first page of their intervention. Only those parties whose requests to appear have been granted will be contacted by the Commission and invited to appear at the public hearing.

Persons requiring communications support such as assistance listening devices and sign language interpretation are requested to inform the Commission at least twenty (20) days before the commencement of the public hearing so that the necessary arrangements can be made.

Important notice

All information that parties provide as part of this public process, except information designated confidential, whether sent by postal mail, facsimile, e-mail or through the Commission’s website at www.crtc.gc.ca, becomes part of a publicly accessible file and will be posted on the Commission’s website. This information includes personal information, such as full names, e-mail addresses, postal/street addresses, telephone and facsimile numbers, and any other personal information parties provide.

The personal information that parties provide will be used and may be disclosed for the purpose for which the information was obtained or compiled by the Commission, or for a use consistent with that purpose.

Documents received electronically or otherwise will be put on the Commission’s website in their entirety exactly as received, including any personal information contained therein, in the official language and format in which they are received. Documents not received electronically will be available in PDF format.

The information that parties provide to the Commission as part of this public process is entered into an unsearchable database dedicated to this specific public process. This database is accessible only from the web page of this particular public process. As a result, a general search of the Commission’s website with the help of either its own search engine or a third-party search engine will not provide access to the information that was provided as part of this public process.

The Commission encourages parties and interested persons to monitor the record of the proceeding, available on the Commission’s website, for additional information that they may find useful when preparing their submissions.

Examination of documents

An electronic version of the applications is available on the Commission’s website by selecting the application number within this notice. It is also available from the applicant either on its website or upon request by contacting the applicant its mail address, provided above. The applicant has also offered to make its applications available for viewing at the locations listed in Appendix 1 of this notice.

A list of all interventions and answers will also be available on the Commission’s website. The list is accessible by selecting “View all proceedings open for comment” from the “Public Proceedings” section of the Commission’s website and clicking on the “Interventions/Answers” link associated with this notice.

Documents are also available during normal office hours at the Commission offices and documentation centres directly involved with this application or, upon request, within two (2) working days, at any other Commission offices and documentation centres.

Location of Commission offices

Toll-free telephone: 1-877-249-2782
Toll-free TDD: 1-877-909-2782

Les Terrasses de la Chaudière
Central Building
1 Promenade du Portage
Room 206
Gatineau, Quebec
J8X 4B1
Tel.: 819-997-2429
Fax: 819-994-0218

Regional offices

Nova Scotia

Metropolitan Place
99 Wyse Road
Suite 1410
Dartmouth, Nova Scotia
B3A 4S5
Tel.: 902-426-7997
Fax: 902-426-2721

Quebec

205 Viger Avenue West
Suite 504
Montréal, Quebec
H2Z 1G2
Tel.: 514-283-6607

Ontario

55 St. Clair Avenue East
Suite 624
Toronto, Ontario
M4T 1M2
Tel.: 416-952-909616

Manitoba

Kensington Building 275
Portage Avenue
Suite 1810
Winnipeg, Manitoba
R3B 2B3
Tel.: 204-983-6306
Fax: 204-983-6317

Saskatchewan

2220 – 12th Avenue
Suite 620
Regina, Saskatchewan
S4P 0M8
Tel.: 306-780-3422

Alberta

10405 Jasper Avenue
Suite 520
Edmonton, Alberta
T5J 3N4
Tel.: 780-495-3224

British Columbia

858 Beatty Street
Suite 290
Vancouver, British Columbia
V6B 1C1
Tel.: 604-666-2111
Fax: 604-666-8322

Secretary General

Date modified:

2012-09-05