Broadcasting Procedural Letter adressed to various parties
Ottawa, 21 September 2022
Public record: 1011-NOC2021-0413
BY EMAIL
Parties to Broadcasting Notice of Consultation CRTC 2021-413
Re: Procedural request – Additional submissions in Call for comments on market capacity and the appropriateness of issuing a call for radio applications to serve Joliette, Quebec, Broadcasting Notice of Consultation CRTC 2021-413
On 29 July 2022, Radio Nord-Joli inc. (Radio Nord-Joli) filed a procedural request seeking Commission approval to file additional submissions in Broadcasting Notice of Consultation CRTC 2021-413 (NOC 2021-413) in light of the Commission’s determinations in Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2022-143 (Decision 2022-143). Radio Nord-Joli requested that the parties to NOC 2021-413 be granted 30 days to file additional submissions with a 10 day reply period.
In Decision 2022-143, which was issued on 2 June 2022, the Commission denied an application by Radio Nord-Joli to amend the authorized contours of the French-language community radio station CFNJ-FM Saint-Gabriel-de-Brandon. As part of the decision, the Commission clarified the scope of CFNJ-FM’s authorized market by determining that the Joliette market was not within CFNJ-FM’s service area.
In parallel to the proceeding leading to Decision 2022-143, the Commission, following an application for a broadcasting licence to operate a new commercial radio station to serve Joliette, launched NOC 2021-413 for comments on market capacity and the appropriateness of issuing a call for radio applications to serve Joliette. As part of NOC 2021-413, interventions were due on 31 January 2022 and replies were due on 15 February 2022.
As such, Radio Nord-Joli submitted in its procedural request that the Commission’s determinations in Decision 2022-143 were not available to parties at the time of their submissions in NOC 2021-413. Radio Nord-Joli argued that the Commission’s determinations in Decision 2022-143 are relevant to NOC 2021-413 and that if it had known about these determinations prior to the deadlines set out in NOC 2021-413, it would have formulated its submissions differently in the proceeding.
The Commission considers that approval of Radio Nord-Joli’s request is in the public interest since allowing additional submissions would ensure that the Commission’s decision in NOC 2021-413 is based on a complete record. While the Commission recognizes the potential impact that Radio Nord-Joli’s request may have on NOC 2021-413 and on the parties to the proceeding, the Commission considers that, given the change in circumstance for CFNJ-FM as a result of Decision 2022-143, it would be in the public interest to grant, in part, Radio Nord-Joli’s procedural request to reopen NOC 2021-413 to allow for additional submissions.
Accordingly, Commission staff sets out the following process for the filing of additional submissions in NOC 2021-413:
- All parties to NOC 2021-413 will have until 3 October 2022 to file additional submissions limited to how the issues raised in Radio Nord-Joli’s procedural request affect their submissions already filed in NOC 2021-413;
- All parties to NOC 2021-413 will then have until 11 October 2022 to file replies to the additional submissions received.
A copy of this letter, a copy of Radio Nord-Joli’s procedural request and all related correspondence will be added to the public record of the NOC 2021-413 proceeding.
Claude Doucet
Secretary General
c.c.: Arsenal Média inc., serge.bellerose55@gmail.com
Coopérative de solidarité radio communautaire de la MRC de Maskinongé,
jonathan.cyrenne@countrypop.ca
Radio Nord-Joli inc., nicolas.bellemare@cfnj.net
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