Broadcasting - Staff Letter addressed to Marc Nanni
Ottawa, 7 November 2024
Reference: 1011-NOC2024-0202
BY EMAIL
Marc Nanni
Gatineau, Quebec
mn_crtc@proton.me
Subject: Staff letter in response to your information request - Broadcasting Notice of Consultation CRTC 2024-202
Dear Marc Nanni,
On 1 November, we received both your formal and informal requests seeking additional information to assist you in the preparation of your intervention in response to Broadcasting Notice of Consultation CRTC 2024-202 Call for comments – Guidelines regarding consultation and engagement practices in proceedings relating to official language minority communities and official languages (OLMC Consultation Proceeding). In this letter, CRTC staff provides you with some clarifications on the OLMC Consultation Proceeding as well as additional information that we hope will be helpful to you in the preparation of your intervention.
Why your intervention matters
By intervening in the OLMC Consultation Proceeding, you will be contributing to the public record upon which the CRTC will strengthen its practices and procedures to support consultation with OLMC and other stakeholders on matters relating to OLMC and official languages. The CRTC information-gathering phase of the proceeding underway and this is the opportunity for OLMCs and other interested persons such as you to inform the CRTC’s future OLMC consultation and engagement practices.
The instigation of the OLMC Consultation Proceeding
The OLMC Consultation Proceeding was initiated as a result of the CRTC’s new legislative obligations, notably sections 5.1 and 5.2 of the Broadcasting Act and Part VII of the Official Languages Act, not as a result of any specific OLMC issue before the CRTC. In this respect, the CRTC does not have a “list of all OLMC issues that have come up to require the OLMC guidelines consultation” to provide.
Indeed, a key question being asked in the OLMC Consultation proceeding is what type of decisions require OLMC consultation. We look forward to hearing your views on the matter.
The information that will be considered as part of the OLMC Consultation Proceeding
The CRTC bases its decisions on the public records of proceedings. That means that when the CRTC develops the guidelines on consultation on OLMC and official languages matters, it will rely on the information that is collected through the OLMC Consultation Proceeding. The public record, which is continually updated, can be accessed here, and through the link included in the Notice.
Additional resources
With respect to the CRTC-OLMC Discussion Group, I encourage you to visit the webpage for the Discussion Group. It explains the work of the group, which has been active since 2006, including links to approved minutes from recent meetings. The CRTC’s webpages dedicated to official languages and the CRTC-OLMC Discussion Group are updated as quickly as possible. As well, the letters of the CRTC Official Languages Champion are on the CRTC website. These letters provide the public with updates on the CRTC’s work in respect of OLMC, official languages and the Discussion Group. Specifically, please see the letters of 1 August 2024 and 1 November 2024.
With respect to other processes and Part 1 applications relating to OLMC and official languages, since the legislative amendments have been in force, several proceedings have involved additional consultation and outreach with OLMC and other stakeholders to create a fulsome public record for decision on a case-by-case basis. Examples of such cases are in Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2024-178 - CFED-FM Edmonton – Licence amendment and Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2024-165 - Canadian Broadcasting Corporation – English- and French-language audio-visual services – Amendments to conditions of service relating to Canadian programming expenditures and expenditures on programs of national interest.
With respect to other requests for information concerning the Notice, CRTC staff provide factual information to the public, not guidance. CRTC staff received a request for information from an interested person regarding sources of CRTC financing. In response, staff indicated that the authority for funding the CRTC’s operations derived from the Broadcasting Act and fees made thereunder, which are approved by Treasury Board, and identified that specific details of funding can be found in the CRTC Departmental Plan 2024-25 (see Figure 1 under section titled ‘Funding’) as well as the Departmental Results Report 2022-2023.
I would be pleased to discuss this matter with you directly and explain how you can participate in future meetings of the CRTC-OLMC Discussion Group.
We hope that this information is useful to you and look forward to hearing your views in OLMC Consultation Proceeding and in future CRTC proceedings, initiatives and discussion groups.
Sincerely,
Kay Saicheua
Director, Strategic Planning and International Affairs
Consumer, Analytics, Strategy Sector
CRTC
cc: languesofficielles-officiallanguages@crtc.gc.ca
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