ARCHIVED - Broadcasting Commission Letter addressed to Jamie Hill (Aboriginal Voices Radio Inc.)

Ottawa, 2 April 2015

Jamie Hill, President
Aboriginal Voices Radio Inc.
426 Fourth Line Rd.
Ohsweken, Ontario
N0A 1M0

By email: avrjamie@gmail.com sarah@henselbarristers.com

Licence renewal applications:

2014-0960-8 for CKAV-FM Toronto, ON
2014-0959-0 for CKAV-FM-2 Vancouver, BC
2014-0957-4 for CKAV-FM-3 Calgary, AB
2014-0955-8 for CKAV-FM-4 Edmonton, AB
2014-0956-6 for CKAV-FM-9 Ottawa, ON

Dear Mr. Hill,

This is further to our letters dated 6 February & 20 February 2015 and your reply letters dated 6 March and 31 March 2015 regarding the above-noted licence renewal applications. The present letter also addresses certain procedural matters relating to the various filings made by Aboriginal Voices Radio Inc. (AVR) in the context of Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2012-653 (decision 2012-653) in order to determine the confidentiality and public disclosure of information that is to be added to the public file.

Section 30 of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission Rules of Practice and Procedure (the Rules of Procedure) states in part, “that the Commission must make available for public inspection any information submitted to the Commission in the course of proceedings before it to the extent that the information is not designated as confidential.” The Rules of Procedure further require, at s. 32, that when a party makes a designation of confidentiality, it must also provide an explanation why disclosure of the information would not be in the public interest. When a party designates information as confidential, it must provide an abridged version of the confidential document for the public record or explain why an abridged version cannot be filed.

AVR reply dated 31 March 2015

1. In response to question 18 a) of our letter dated 6 February 2015, you state that the requested information is provided in Appendix A. However, Commission staff notes that you may have unintentionally included Appendix A with other documents (i.e. Appendix B & C) that were filed in confidence in one single pdf file. Accordingly, if this assumption is correct, please re-submit Appendix A for the public file. If not, please provide your rationale why any of the information listed in Appendix A should not be made available for public inspection.
2. In response to question 18 b) you state that the requested information is provided in Appendix B and Appendix C. You also request that all compensation and salary data remain confidential given that disclosure of this information would harm the individual employees’ right to privacy.

   Commission staff notes that question 18 b) of our 6 February 2015 letter requested that AVR disclose “the sum of all salaries for remaining staff, and the sum of all salaries for the staff that was laid off, as noted in your 2014 annual update.”  In order to clarify, Commission staff is requesting that you provide, for the public file, the total combined salaries for remaining staff and the total combined salaries for laid off staff, in the aggregate for each group, based on the individual salaries noted in your 2014 annual update. Consequently, please re-submit Appendix B and Appendix C with these aggregate numbers for the public file.  You may maintain your designation of confidentiality over the individual salaries.

2013 & 2014 Annual Updates

Commission staff notes that on 2 December 2013 (2013 filings) and 1 December 2014 (2014 filings) Aboriginal Voices Radio Inc. (AVR) submitted a number of documents pursuant to conditions of licence no. 9 and no.10 set out in decision 2012-653. As stated in the decision, condition of licence no. 9 requires AVR to file an annual update on the achievement of its business objectives on or before 30 November for the broadcast year ending the previous 31 August whereas condition of licence no. 10 requires the licensee to submit, in each broadcast year, audited financial statements for each of its radio stations.

With respect to AVR’s 2013 filings, Commission staff notes that the licensee submitted three separate filings in support of the requirements outlined in conditions of licence no. 9 and no. 10. The table below list each document that was submitted as part of these filings. It should be noted that the naming convention for all documents listed in the tables below were produced by Commission staff.

Related to AVR’s 2014 filings, the licensee submitted as per condition of licence no. 9 abridged and confidential versions of the document entitled AVR Business Objectives Report – 2013-2014.

Commission staff notes that the AVR Personnel Report (2013), regarding which Commission staff requested public disclosure in its letter of 6 February, was submitted as part of the Group 3 filing and is the only document designated as confidential by AVR. Commission staff also notes that all remaining documents could therefore be considered subject to public disclosure.

In light of the sensitive nature of the information contained in some of these documents, Commission staff seek your comments on the following designation of the documents submitted as part of the AVR 2013 & 2014 Annual filings.

In view of the above, Commission staff requests that AVR take the following action by no later than 7 April 2015:

• Re-submit Appendix A of your 31 March 2015 reply letter for the public file.
• Submit, for the public file, aggregated totals of the salaries of (i) remaining AVR staff and (ii) laid off staff, based on the individual salaries noted in your 2014 annual update.
• Confirm that the documents submitted as part of the AVR 2013 & 2014 Annual filings may be publicly disclosed in accordance with the above tables.

A copy of this letter and all related correspondence will be added to the public record of the proceeding.

The Commission requires that your response and/or other documents be submitted electronically by using the secured service “My CRTC Account” (Partner Log In or GCKey) and filling in the “Broadcasting and Telecom Cover page” or the “Broadcasting Online Form and Cover Page” located on this web page. Also on this web page you will find information on the submission of applications to the Commission “Submitting applications and other documents to the CRTC using My CRTC Account.” 

Should you need further information concerning your applications, please do not hesitate to contact me by telephone at 819-997-4724 or by fax at 819-994-0218.

Yours truly,

André Joly

Senior Radio Analyst
Radio Applications and Policy
andre.joly@crtc.gc.ca

c.c.  lewiscardinal@gmail.com

Date modified:

2015-04-02