Broadcasting - Secretary General Letter addressed to Jean-François Leclerc, Nicolas Leclerc (Leclerc Communication inc.) and Peggy Tabet (Quebecor Media inc.)
Ottawa, 11 December 2024
Reference: 2024-0604-0
BY E-MAIL
Jean-François Leclerc
Vice-President, Programming
Nicolas Leclerc
Secretary and Vice-President Sales
Leclerc Communication inc.
815 Boul. Lebourgneuf, Office 505
Québec, Quebec
G2J 0C1
Peggy Tabet
Vice-president, Regulatory and environmental affairs,
Quebecor Media inc.
612 St-Jacques West
15th floor South Tower
Montréal, Quebec
H3C 4M8
RE: Designation as confidential of the Memorandum of Understanding between Leclerc Communication inc. (Leclerc) and Quebecor Media inc. (Quebecor) and parts of Leclerc's reply dated 22 October 2024 concerning the programming of CJPX-FM Montréal (99.5 FM)
Jean-François, Nicolas Leclerc and Peggy Tabet,
On 20 November 2024, Cogeco inc. (Cogeco), on behalf of its subsidiary Cogeco Media Inc., and Bell Media Inc. (Bell Media) filed a joint Part 1 application in accordance with the Commission’s Rules of Practice and Procedure (application 2024-0604-0) seeking a determination by the Commission to prohibit Quebecor and Leclerc from broadcasting QUB Radio content on CJPX-FM Montréal.
Prior to this application being received, Commission staff was already examining the situation in light of media reports. You are hereby notified that the answers and documents filed by Leclerc and Quebecor in response to Commission staff's requests for information regarding CJPX-FM Montréal’s programming change, as well as the reports for the two performance evaluations conducted for the station (9 and 25 October 2024) will be placed on the public record of this proceeding.
This letter is also addressing the confidentiality designation of certain of these documents as set out in Leclerc's 28 November 2024 letter to Commission staff. In this letter, Leclerc briefly explained the reasons why it maintains the confidentiality of the entire Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Leclerc and NumériQ inc. (NumériQ), a subsidiary of Quebecor, and of certain sections of your 22 October 2024 response to staff's request for information.
Subsection 25.3 (1) of the Broadcasting Act provides that a person who supplies information to the Commission may designate as confidential certain information supplied to the Commission if it falls within one of the categories described in that section. Pursuant to subsections 25.3 (4) and (5) of the Broadcasting Act, the Commission may make or require disclosure of information designated as confidential if it considers such disclosure to be in the public interest. Also, any information that does not fall into one of the confidentiality categories may be communicated to the public.
The Commission has examined your reasons for designating the information as confidential and is of the view that the reasons provided in the letter of 28 November 2024 are not sufficiently detailed to justify the designation as confidential of the entire MOU between Leclerc and NumériQ. The Commission is of the view that certain information does not correspond to one of the categories of information likely to be designated as confidential under the Act. With respect to information that is properly designated as confidential, the Commission considers that Leclerc has not demonstrated sufficient harm that would outweigh the public interest in disclosure. Furthermore, the Commission considers that the information provided is useful to enable the public to make informed comments on the circumstances surrounding Leclerc's control of CJPX-FM Montréal's programming and effective control of the station, and that disclosure of this information would serve the public interest.
Since the abridged version of Leclerc's response to staff's request for information dated 22 October 2024 is linked to maintaining the full confidentiality of the MOU, the Commission is of the preliminary view that the same finding is applicable to this document.
For these reasons, the Commission is of the view that the MOU cannot be treated as confidential in its entirety. Attached to this letter is the Commission’s preliminary determination regarding the confidentiality designations of the MOU and Leclerc's 22 October 2024 response to Commission staff’s request for information.
In order to complete the public record of application 2024-0604-0 and to permit the disclosure of information that would not cause Leclerc and/or Quebecor sufficient prejudice to justify its designation as confidential, abridged versions reflecting the determinations set out in the MOU and the 22 October 2024 response must be filed with the Commission no later than 16 December 2024. Should Leclerc and/or Quebecor wish to file written submissions to justify maintaining the confidentiality of certain information in these two documents, the parties must file their submissions with the Commission no later than 16 December 2024.
We also note that the MOU between Leclerc and NumériQ refers to the following appendices: Appendix A, Appendix B, Appendix C, Appendix D and Appendix E. With the exception of Appendices D and E, which are included in the MOU, the other appendices are identified as attachments and were not provided to the Commission when the MOU was submitted on 4 September 2024. In response to Commission staff's request to provide the missing appendices to the MOU, Leclerc indicated that Appendices B and C had not, to date, been formally exchanged between the parties, but committed to providing them to the Commission no later than 15 January 2025. As for Appendix A, Leclerc indicated that it was still under discussion with NumériQ as to its form and content, and that for the time being, they were not in a position to provide a copy of the document, which does not yet exist. However, Leclerc has undertaken to provide Appendix A to the Commission as soon as possible.
In order to allow the Commission to review the missing appendices to the MOU and make a future determination on the appropriateness of disclosing them, abridged and confidential copies and a justification supporting its confidentiality designation of Appendices B and C must be filed with the Commission no later than 15 January 2025. With respect to the filing of Appendix A, the Commission expects Leclerc to file a confidential and abridged version as soon as it is finalized, and to inform the Commission no later than 15 January 2025 of the date on which it may submit it.
A copy of this letter (with the exception of the attachments) will be added to the public file for application 2024-0604-0, which will be available imminently, and will be available for public review.
Your sincerely,
Marc Morin
Secretary General
Attachments (2)
MOU between Leclerc and NumériQ
Leclerc’s 22 October 2024 response
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