Broadcasting Commission Letter addressed to Monica. L. Auer, M.A., LL.M. (Forum for Research and Policy in Communications (FRPC))
Gatineau, 22 July 2020
BY EMAIL
Monica. L. Auer, M.A., LL.M.
Executive Director
Forum for Research and Policy in Communications (FRPC)
Ottawa, Ontario
By Email: execdir@frpc.net
Re: Notice of hearing, Broadcasting Notice of Consultation CRTC 2019-379 (Ottawa, 25 November 2019) – Procedural requests by the Forum for Research and Policy in Communications (FRPC)
Dear Ms. Auer,
This letter is in response to two procedural requests sent to the Commission on 12 March 2020 regarding the CBC/SRC licence renewal process announced in Broadcasting Notice of Consultation CRTC 2019-379 (the Notice). The procedural requests raised two issues:
1. Request to add a redacted PowerPoint presentation regarding CBC/SRC’s strategic plan to the public record
On 4 February 2020, the FRPC wrote to CBC/SRC under the Access to Information Act to request a copy of the strategic plan that, according to CBC/SRC’s 2018-2019 Annual Report, had been presented and approved by CBC/SRC’s Board of Directors in March 2019. CBC/SRC, in response, sent a redacted PowerPoint presentation to the FRPC in March 2020. The FRPC has requested that the Commission add this presentation to the public record under the grounds that it “contains information that is not provided in the 2-page PDF and which is relevant to CBC’s renewal application.”
After careful review of the information and submission provided by the FRPC in its letter regarding this information, of the CBC/SRC’s 2 page Strategic Plan and of the multiple documents submitted by CBC/SRC on the public record, the Commission has concluded that the redacted PowerPoint presentation does not contain any new pertinent information for this process.
Furthermore, in January 2020, in a response to a procedural request sent by the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, the Commission already stated that financial information and corporate documents that were available in the public domain could be referenced by intervenors during this proceeding. The Commission notes that the redacted PowerPoint presentation is available on FRPC’s website and has been since March 2020.
For these reasons, the Commission denies this request.
2. Request to add report of broadcast notifications to the public record
Section 35(1) of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
Rules of Practice and Procedure (SOR/2010-277) provides that when the CRTC holds a public hearing to consider an application, the applicant must give notice of the consultation over its facilities. The FRPC has requested that the report which the CBC/SRC sent to the Commission regarding the broadcast of these notices be added to the public record, stating that the public broadcaster’s compliance with this rule constitutes relevant evidence with respect to its “trustworthiness.”
This type of information is not normally put on the record of a proceeding. While the FRPC makes a broad argument about the “trustworthiness” of CBC/SRC, it did not allege that the CBC/SRC had not broadcast the notices of consultation, nor did it provide any evidence of non-compliance. Moreover, Commission staff reviewed the information contained in the report and is of the view that CBC/SRC had broadcast the notices as required.
For these reasons, the Commission denies this request.
Sincerely,
Claude Doucet
Secretary General
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