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FRIENDS of Canadian Broadcasting acknowledges the opportunity your Committee has afforded Canadians to contribute ideas to the pre-budget consultation process. Your 1999 approach is novel in seeking thematic advice. While we applaud your initiative, we believe the process you have advanced is flawed because it pre-defines those topics deemed important while excluding fundamental economic and cultural issues that underlie the health of the Canadian community.

For example, the Canadian broadcasting and entertainment industries make an important economic, social and cultural contribution to our country. At the leading edge of new technology, they are a critical part of the knowledge economy and they contribute significantly to employment, particularly among young people. All of this is true in no small part because Canadians spend billions of dollars supporting these industries, through tax dollars, cable subscriptions and product costs which support the advertising industry.

Yet, based on your July 1999 web site news release, comments on this topic would appear to be off the agenda.

Such a turn of events would not happen in a United States Senate or House of Representatives committee because the American entertainment industry is that country's leading exporter and a strong contributor to its balance of payments. No prelude to an American federal budgetary process would by-pass the entertainment industry.

Recognition of the importance of the entertainment industry in Washington explains why the American government is so intent on winning access to foreign broadcasting and entertainment markets.

Very soon, the World Trade Organization will begin a round of talks to eliminate trade barriers. Canada's private broadcasting industry lobby – the Canadian Association of Broadcasters – has already signalled its willingness to sell out to American interests and investors.

Meanwhile, budget reductions to the parliamentary allocation of the CBC – in direct defiance of the Liberal Party's 1993 Red Book promise, to the tune of $400 million – are killing CBC's radio services in local communities across the land while increased reliance on advertising is slowly choking CBC Television's public service mandate. The combined effect of those federal policies is to throttle the ability of Canadians to share stories and experiences with each other. This increases regional and linguistic alienation throughout Canada.

FRIENDS of Canadian Broadcasting therefore recommends that your Committee include among its priorities the following recommendations:

• The federal government should ask the CRTC to undertake a public consultation on how adequately to fund the nation-building work of the CBC.
• The government should instruct the CRTC through its power of policy direction under the Broadcasting Act to prevent cable monopolies from reducing their contributions, on behalf of subscribers, to the Canadian Television Fund.
• At least half the funds administered by the Canadian Television Fund should be reserved for productions aired by the CBC.
• The government should inform the CRTC that it is broadcasting policy to maximize the value of Canadian professional sports rights in the Canadian audio-visual system.
• The method of appointment of the CBC Board of Directors and its President should be reformed to ensure merit appointments at arm's length from the governing party, and under the active scrutiny of the Commons Heritage Committee.
• The government should refuse to capitulate to a regulated industry-led pressure to reduce the requirement for Canadian ownership in broadcasting and telecommunications.

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See also:   
Parliamentary Transcript of Q&A Session following FRIENDS' Presentation