Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications

The Canadian Radio-television Commission was established in 1968 as a federal agency to oversee broadcasting in Canada and in 1976 had its powers expanded to include telecommunications (and the name changed accordingly to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission [CRTC]). Broadcasting and telecommunications encompass radio and television services (including terrestrial broadcasting, cable, and satellite), telephony and wireless networks, and online streaming services.

Together, broadcasting and telecommunications account for more than $60 billion in the Canadian economy and provide essential infrastructure for the exchange of cultural and informational resources necessary for the functioning of a Canadian democratic society. The CRTC oversees these sectors within a legislative framework that it fulfills through decisions made in the public interest and in consultation with Canadians. This entry further describes the structure of the CRTC and discusses its policy objectives and operations.

The CRTC is a quasi-judicial body tasked specifically with issuing and approving the transfer of broadcasting licenses, creating broadcasting and telecommunications regulation, and responding to public complaints. The Commission is comprised of 13 commissioners who are appointed for terms of up to 5 years by the governor general on the advice of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada, whose authority is exercised by the federal Cabinet of the governing party in the Canadian Parliament. The Cabinet also makes recommendations to the governor general for the chair and vice chairs of the Commission. The chair of the CRTC has wide discretionary powers to set organizational agendas and priorities that may change significantly from one chair to the next. The CRTC has approximately 680 employees and works with an annual budget of CAD$107 million. The Commission issues between 700 and 1,000 decisions, notices of consultation, regulatory policies, reports, and orders every year.

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The mandate, jurisdiction, objects, and duties of the CRTC are primarily set out in three federal acts: (1) the Broadcasting Act (S.C. 1991, c. 11), (2) the Telecommunications Act (S.C. 1993, c.38), and (3) the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. C-22). The Commission operates at arm’s length from the government and is legally constituted to make decisions independent of political influence. The Commission must fulfill its mandate in accordance with a complex array of goals and objectives set out in the governing legislation; for example, s.3 of the Broadcasting Act mandates a broadcasting system that is owned and controlled by Canadians; that safeguards the cultural, political, social, and economic fabric of Canada; and that reflects Canadian attitudes, opinions, ideas, values, and artistic creativity including equal rights, the multicultural nature of Canadian society, and the special place of aboriginal peoples, to name only some of the requirements. Section 7 of the Telecommunications Act acknowledges the essential role of telecommunications “in the maintenance of Canada’s identity and sovereignty” and mandates policies that safeguard the social and economic fabric of Canada and its regions, that result in high-quality services to Canadians in both urban and rural areas, and that promote Canadian ownership and control.

In meeting these objectives, the CRTC has historically developed and articulated policies that reflect changing sensibilities of public interest. As Marc Raboy has documented, in the early to the mid-20th century, the public interest reflected concerns about (and thus produced policies that protected) cultural sovereignty and nationalist aspirations. In the 1950s and the early 1960s, concerns shifted to include more pragmatic approaches to developing and sustaining domestic cultural industries and encouraging technological development.

In the late 1960s and the 1970s, the parameters of public interest shifted again, in part to address growing concerns about national unity through a reinvigorated mandate for public broadcasting and also through policies aimed at accommodating forms of public discontent, including provisions for public access cable television and community radio licenses. Following this politically turbulent period, in the 1980s and the 1990s, and well into the 2000s, policy objectives shifted yet again to accommodate a growing interest in consumer sovereignty, deregulation, and an emphasis on allowing the market to self-manage changing conditions in the broadcasting and telecommunications sectors. In recent years, public statements and decisions by the CRTC have suggested yet another shift, this time to an expressly defined public interest that addresses the needs of Canadians viewed in three distinct capacities: as citizens, as consumers, and as content creators.

In fulfilling legislative requirements through notions of public interest, the CRTC employs a wide range of regulatory strategies. These strategies include restrictions on foreign ownership of broadcasting and telecommunication organizations and on concentration of ownership, including the regulation of cross-market ownership and restrictions based on market share (e.g., a single television licensee cannot control more than 45% of the total Canadian television market). Levels of Canadian content in the broadcasting system are also regulated through license requirements for Canadian-made programming in different genres and in prime-time scheduling. Other regulatory strategies include subsidies for the production of Canadian programming, ensuring the availability of local news and information, encouraging public participation and local reflection through community-based media, the development of domestic industries, technological transitions (e.g., from analog to digital broadcasting), the regulation of wireless contracts, public broadcasting, programming services for the visually and hearing impaired, and wholesale rates for telecommunication services.

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One of the central operating tenets of the CRTC is public consultation. According to legislation, the CRTC must hold public hearings for the issuance of licenses and has the discretion to hold hearings on any matter of relevance within its mandate. In practice, the CRTC routinely consults stakeholders on policy matters although the adequacy and meaningfulness of efforts to consult the general public is often contested by scholars and civil society practitioners.

In the early years of the commission, hearings were held in person across the country in various regional centers. New communication technologies have allowed the commission to expand opportunities for public participation while diminishing the requirement for physical hearings outside of the Ottawa-Gatineau region. For example, in the Let’s Talk TV public process (a major review of broadcasting regulation initiated in 2013), public consultation occurred through regular mail services, email, facsimile, telephone messages, online discussion forums, an interactive online questionnaire, videoconferencing, and what the commission called flash conferences, meetings organized by anyone in Canada in which relevant issues were discussed and summary notes were added to the public record. The Let’s Talk TV public process received close to 15,000 submissions included in the official record.

The CRTC operates independently and at arm’s length from the executive branch of the federal government, but in practice, there are limits on the exercise of its discretionary authority; for example, from time to time, the federal Cabinet issues requests and directives to the CRTC through the Privy Council asking for fact-finding reports or public hearings on relevant issues. In 2012, the minister of heritage issued the first ever Mandate Letter to a newly appointed chair setting out various areas of policy priority. (Mandate Letters are less formal than an Order of the Privy Council and less certain in legal status.) Concerns about the independence of the CRTC have also been raised by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage in connection with indirect forms of influence such as perceptions of close ties between those serving on the commission, the industry, and industry law firms.

Decisions by the CRTC are legally binding, but can be appealed by petition in writing to the governor in council within 45 days of the decision (i.e., an appeal to have the Cabinet review the decision) or by the Cabinet on its own initiative and by an appeal to the Federal Court within 30 days of the decision. Historically, CRTC decisions have only rarely been appealed. According to Michael Ryan, between 1968 and 2012, the Cabinet reviewed 179 of the decisions made by the CRTC, and of those, 48 were varied, rescinded, set aside, or referred back to the CRTC for further deliberation. In Ryan’s assessment, even these numbers are significant and reflect real and potential opportunities for executive influence on the policy process. Opinions are divided on whether this is a desirable democratic arrangement (i.e., ultimate authority resting with elected representatives) or whether it presents a threat to public accountability.

The original version of this article was published by SAGE Publications in The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Mass Media and Society.