Excerpts from the March 20 meeting of the parliamentary committee reviewing the mandate of the CBC

This exchange took place between the chair of the Heritage committee (Mr. Gary Schellenberger ) and Mr. Scott Hutton (Acting Associate Executive Director of Broadcasting, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission CRTC).  The Chair had heard from SOCK representatives on march 14 that CBC TV had abandoned Kamloops viewers who receive CBC over the air.
 

The Chair:

Just last week, as a committee, some of us travelled to Yellowknife and to Vancouver. We had hearings in both places.

A significant number of Canadians still depend on over-the-air reception. I know Mr. Angus has asked this, but last week the committee heard from several witnesses who no longer receive over-the-air signals from the CBC. What is the CRTC's position on this? As a public broadcaster, is it the mandate of the CBC to make sure that these signals get to people, maybe in a new way?

The one big thing in Yellowknife was that not only is it in English and French, but I think there are 11 Innu and aboriginal tongues spoken, to get the message that those people also deserve some of these things.

What is the CRTC's position on over-the-air reception, especially in some of the remote areas? Some of them aren't quite so remote, such as Kamloops. We heard a presentation from them too.

Mr. Scott Hutton:

I'm a bit uncomfortable in answering, because as I indicated earlier, that is a key consideration of our current over-the-air hearings with respect to broadcasters, which will set out a policy.

Currently the CRTC's policy and the government's policy is trusting the market to replace transmitters. Bringing folks, whether in urban Canada or in rural Canada, into the new world has been left to the market. We're currently being asked to reconsider that, and certainly it's a key consideration for us to, on one side, promote the assurance that Canadian broadcasters, including the CBC, move towards new digital and HD programming, and at the same time try to make sure that Canadians are not left out.

It's going to be a very serious challenge, in particular with respect to the CBC, because they have and they have built a far more expansive network as a result of government intervention or incentives at a certain point in time or the sense of obligation because it is a public broadcaster to get that out there. They have a far larger network than most other private broadcasters and they have a significantly greater challenge in that regard to modernize the faraway transmitters.

We're on the case, and certainly we will be issuing our policy. We will be addressing these issues and the renewal of the private broadcasters' licences and the CBC's following that.