Members of Parliament returned to legislative business on Monday, January 31st. The coming session of Parliament will be a particularly active moment for the broadcasting sector.
Mandate letters were distributed in December by the Prime Minister to outline the objectives each minister will work to accomplish, alongside challenges they will address in their roles.
The Minister of Heritage, Minister Rodriguez, whose portfolio includes the broadcasting sector, has an immediate focus to introduce legislation to reform the Broadcasting Act, and asking web giants to pay their fair share, according to the official letter.
The letter also called for the Minister to swiftly introduce legislation, modelled on the Australian approach, to require digital platforms that generate revenues from the publication of news content to share a portion of their revenues with Canadian news outlets to level the playing field between global platforms and Canadian outlets.
The government has indicated that these bills will be tabled within days of the new session, to meet their election platform commitment to introducing this legislation within 100 days.
CAB met with the Minister shortly after he was named to the position, and has continued a dialogue with key Members of Parliament in recent weeks to highlight the urgent need to address the Broadcasting Act, and to highlight the need to include broadcasters in any plan to compensate newsrooms for their content.
View the full mandate letter here.