Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to this public consultation on the CBC.
My name is Françoise Bertrand and I am the CRTC’s Chairperson. Please allow me to
introduce my fellow Commissioner, Stuart Langford.
We are here to gather your views and comments on CBC radio and television. In your
opinion, how should the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation fulfil its role in the coming
years?
The CBC is a national public service, broadcasting in English as well as in French. It
plays an important role in the Canadian broadcasting system. Today, many elements are
constantly being added to the broadcasting system, as new technologies multiply, converge,
open up new horizons, and increasingly offer new services. In this context, we want to
know what are your needs and expectations as viewers and listeners of the CBC.
Given that, it is very important that the Commission hears what you have to say. We
must not lose sight of the fact that the CRTC is a public organization that serves
Canadian citizens. In this capacity, we are responsible to you. This is why my fellow
Commissioners and myself find it vital to come and meet with you to discuss these issues
and why we are holding this series of regional consultations, from one end of the country
to the other, in eleven Canadian cities, from March 9th to 18th.
These consultations are designed to give you a chance, on the eve of a new millennium,
to express your opinion on the CBC’s role, the programming it offers and the
direction it should take at the national, regional and local levels.
Through these consultations we hope to enter into an open dialogue with you and to hear
your concerns. Your comments will form part of the public record which will be added to
the record of the public hearing on the CBC that will begin in Hull, next May 25th.
At this upcoming hearing, the Commission will examine the CBC’s application for
the renewal of its licences, including radio, television and its specialty services,
Newsworld and Réseau de l’information. You can also take part in that public hearing
by sending your written comments to the CRTC. If you wish to do so, please remember to
refer to the specific licence renewals being examined when you file your comments.
Now, I’d like to come back to today’s consultations. Please allow me to
introduce the CRTC staff who will be assisting us today: Alastair Stewart, our legal
counsel; and Brien Rodger, the Director of our Halifax Regional Office. Please feel free
to call on them with any questions you might have about the process today, or any other
matter.
So that you will all have the opportunity to speak, we ask that you please limit your
presentation to ten minutes. As these consultations are a forum designed especially for
you, and we want to listen to as many participants as possible, we will not ask any
questions, unless we need clarification.
At the end of this session, representatives from the local CBC stations will have a
chance to offer their views, as they are naturally very interested by the issues we are
discussing here, today.
Before we start, I would ask our legal counsel to go over some of the housekeeping
matters regarding the conduct of this consultation.
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Contact: Denis Carmel, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0N2
Tel.:
(819) 997-9403, TDD: (819) 994-0423, Fax: (819) 997-4245
e-mail: denis.carmel@crtc.gc.ca
Toll-free # 1-877-249-CRTC (2782)
This document is available in alternative format upon request.
