ARCHIVED - Broadcasting Procedural Letter Addressed to Monica L. Auer (Forum for Research and Policy in Communications)

This page has been archived on the Web

Information identified as archived on the Web is for reference, research or recordkeeping purposes. Archived Decisions, Notices and Orders (DNOs) remain in effect except to the extent they are amended or reversed by the Commission, a court, or the government. The text of archived information has not been altered or updated after the date of archiving. Changes to DNOs are published as “dashes” to the original DNO number. Web pages that are archived on the Web are not subject to the Government of Canada Web Standards. As per the Communications Policy of the Government of Canada, you can request alternate formats by contacting us.

Ottawa, 22 January 2016

VIA E-MAIL

Monica L. Auer
Executive Director
Forum for Research and Policy in Communications (FRPC)
execdir@frpc.net

Re: Procedural request – Appeal of CRTC staff’s denial of FRPC’s 21 December 2015 procedural request

This is in response to your letter dated 24 December 2015 requesting that the Commission reverse the decision made by its staff on 23 December 2015 to deny requests for procedural changes to the review of Local and Community Programming, outlined in Broadcasting Notice of Consultation 2015-421 (BNC 2015-421).

In your 24 December 2015 letter, you submitted that parties were denied procedural fairness in this proceeding for a number of reasons, including:

In your letter, you also argued that:

Accordingly, FRPC requested that the Commission reverse the determinations in the 23 December 2015 staff letter and:

a) publish the additional document on or before 4 January 2016 or alternatively postpone the public hearing for several weeks;
b) publish the deadline for replies in the 2015-421 proceeding forthwith, so that interveners may schedule their work accordingly; and
c) clarify whether new evidence may be submitted in parties’ final replies

With respect to your request to publish the additional document on or before 4 January 2016 or alternatively to postpone the public hearing for several weeks, the Commission notes that the additional document was published on 12 January 2016 in BNC 2015-421-3. The period of time separating the publication of the additional document and the commencement of the public hearing in this proceeding is consistent with the Commission’s past practices with similar additional documents (see Telecom Notice of Consultation CRTC 2012-557-3 and Broadcasting Notice of Consultation 2014-190-3). The content of this document is based on comments received and its purpose is to set out areas for exploration at the hearing in order to focus discussion and debate during the public hearing. As such, the Commission does not expect interested parties to file additional written submissions in response to the document, but rather that they would prepare to discuss specific issues identified by the Commission based on information that already forms part of the public record, at the hearing.

Regarding your arguments with respect to procedural fairness, the Commission notes that it may modify its procedures as the proceeding progresses in order to respond to issues that arise or to fill gaps in the record based on a consideration of fairness or the public interest. In the present proceeding, given the number of parties that expressed their intention to seek to add information on the public record in light of a conference that was held after the intervention deadline had passed, the Commission modified its procedures to allow for these requests within a specific timeframe. This additional process ensures fairness to all parties, the development of a more fulsome record, and allows time for parties to take into consideration the additional information when preparing for their appearance at the hearing.

For the reasons set out above, the Commission denies your request to publish the additional document on or before 4 January 2016 or alternatively, to postpone the public hearing for several weeks.

The Commission notes that, as indicated in BNC 2015-421-3, issued on 12 January 2016, the deadline for replies is 15 February 2016. The Rules of Practice and Procedure are applicable to such submissions. As such, replies should respond to elements raised on the record of the proceeding, but not introduce new issues. Parties may submit evidence as part of their final comments as long as it is consistent with the Rules of Practice and Procedure or with any other direction the Commission may give during or after the hearing.

Sincerely,

Danielle May-Cuconato
Secretary General

Date modified: