ARCHIVED - Procedural letter
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Ottawa, 7 May 2014
VIA EMAIL: howard.law@unifor.org
DM5#: 2124395
Mr. Howard Law
Media Director
Unifor
510-5915 Airport Road
Mississauga, Ontario
L4V 1T1
Re Response to Applicant’s undertakings - Broadcasting Notice of Consultation CRTC 2014-26
Mr. Law:
This letter is in response to a procedural request that Unifor submitted to the Commission on 22 April 2014. In the procedural letter, Unifor wishes to register its opposition with the fact that Rogers Broadcasting Limited (Rogers) was “permitted during the hearing to revise its previously stated request for regulatory relief” and therefore, Unifor considers Rogers’ final reply to be “improper” as set out in section 40(d) of the CRTC Rules of Practice and Procedure.
Unifor also asks the Commission to reconvene the hearing in order to allow parties that already submitted comments as part of this proceeding to clarify and discuss the impact of the applicant’s abridged financial filings for the City stations and how the applicant plans to implement the condition of licence regarding live hockey programming it committed to during the hearing. Finally, Unifor also mentions that it was advised by Rogers that the program expenditure figures filed in the revised financial projections might be in error.
As you are aware, Commission staff requested that Rogers respond to Unifor’s letter by 30 April 2014. In its response, Rogers indicates that there is no need to reconvene the hearing to clarify and discuss the impact of its abridged financial filings since parties had an opportunity to provide final comments on new proposals or information submitted by Rogers after the conclusion of the hearing. Rogers also explains that the program expenditure on program Category 2(a) in the revised projections should indicate a decline of $2.3 million but the expenditures on program Category 1 remains the same. As a result, Rogers considers that there is no need to re-file its financial projections for correcting the allocations between program Category 1 and 2(a) as the total spending on these program categories remains unchanged.
The Commission notes that, while Rogers was allowed to submit revised financial projections as an undertaking at the reply phase of the hearing, procedural fairness was maintained by allowing all parties that had already commented in this proceeding to provide their views on the new proposals or information submitted at the hearing. As a result, the Commission considers that there is no need to reconvene the hearing to clarify and discuss the impact of Rogers’ abridged financial filings since parties have already had an opportunity to comment on the revised financial projections in their final comments.
With respect to Unifor’s concern regarding an error in the program expenditure figures filed in the revised financial projections, the Commission is of the view that the explanation provided by Rogers in its response to Unifor is sufficient and does not require the re-filing of new revised financial projections given that Rogers’ explanation is available for consultation on the public record of this proceeding.
In addition, the Commission wishes to inform Unifor that the additional reply comments in its letter dated 22 April 2014 will not be taken into consideration in its deliberation regarding this proceeding.
Please note that Unifor’s letter and this response will be added to the public record of this proceeding.
Should you have any questions regarding this letter, please do not hesitate to contact Caroline Poirier, Coordinator of the hearing, at the following phone number: 819-994-2700 or at the following e-mail address: caroline.poirier@crtc.gc.ca.
Sincerely,
Original signed by
John Traversy
Secretary General
Cc: Ms. Susan Wheeler, Rogers Media Inc.
- Date modified: