Broadcasting - Staff Letter addressed to Carol Ann Pilon (Alliance des producteurs francophones du Canada)

Ottawa, 17 February 2023

Reference(s): 2022-0816-5

BY EMAIL

Carol Ann Pilon
Executive Director
Alliance des producteurs francophones du Canada
P.O. Box 672
Bourget, Ontario, K0A 1E0
capilon@apfc.info

Subject: Part 1 application (2022-0816-5) – Procedural request from APFC in order to extend the intervention period related to TFO’s licence renewal application and to add a document to the public record

Carol Ann Pilon,

This letter is in response to the Alliance des producteurs francophones du Canada (APFC)’s procedural request dated 10 February 2023, which relates to The Ontario French-language Educational Communications Authority (TFO)’s licence renewal application mentioned in the subject.

As part of its procedural request, the APFC indicates that it only became aware of the application on Tuesday 7 February 2023, four days after its publication.  The APFC is of the view that, given the numerous ongoing consultations involving francophone minority communities, the current 30-day timeframe for the intervention period is insufficient to allow it to consult all of its members, and to prepare a consolidated position allowing it to proceed to an in-depth examination of TFO’s application.

Consequently, the APFC requests the extension by one month, from 3 to 31 March 2023, of the intervention period for the application noted above.  In addition, the APFC requests that a letter from CRTC staff dated 5 July 2022 be added to the public record in order to adequately analyze TFO’s application.

Staff is of the view that granting four supplementary weeks for the filing of comments, which corresponds to almost twice the normal intervention period, is not justified under the current circumstances, and may significantly delay the processing of TFO’s licence renewal application.

Nevertheless, Commission staff recognizes the interests of official linguistic minority communities (OLMC) with regards to this request, and extends by a week, until 10 March 2023, the intervention period for TFO’s licence renewal application, in order to facilitate their participation. In addition, staff confirms that the letter dated 5 July 2022 – an administrative letter requesting the licensee to file its licence renewal application – has been added to the public record for this proceeding.

Please note that this letter will be placed in the public record for the above noted application.

Yours sincerely,

Original signed by

Michael Craig
A/Director, Television, Broadcasting

c.c.:

Suzanne Lamarre
Lawyer and consultant
Suzanne.Lamarre@groupetcj.ca

Claude Sauvé
Vice-President, Content & Distribution, TFO
csauve@tfo.org

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