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CHAIR'S POSTSCRIPT
Canada's growth as a country has been shaped by gradual and incremental consensus and compromise, rather than by decisions and events of sudden or radical change. Its structures and institutions of governance have followed the same cautious and measured evolution, building on precedent and experience, reflecting carefully the pace of societal and technological changes across the decades.
Our broadcasting system is a typical example of this gradual evolution and growth. It reflects, to-day, the significant body of policy and legislative instruments created and modified carefully and often painstakingly over the years.
The Committee came to the conclusion that, taken as a whole, our broadcasting system has achieved a balance of stability and success which deserves to be recognized.
The Committee also agreed that the Broadcasting Act of 1991, the system's legislative anchor, is an outstanding and judiciously-crafted document, which needs little basic change after a decade and more, so well do its objectives and aims reflect what an ideal Canadian broadcasting system should aspire to be.
However, this said, many areas of concern, as well as suggestions to address them, were brought forward by the large number of witnesses during the Committee's hearings and travels and in the briefs they submitted.
The Committee felt very strongly that its main focus regarding the study, should be the public and the public interest, and how effectively or otherwise they are served by the Canadian broadcasting system. The Committee came to the conclusion that its recommendations should reflect changes and improvements most appropriate to make the system more responsive and more accountable to Canadians at large.
In doing so, the Committee was conscious of the complex web of checks and balances built up over the years around the broadcasting system as it gradually evolved into its present integrated state. Thus the Committee concluded the challenge was not to re-invent a broadcasting system which is generally satisfactory, indeed in many ways successful, but to recommend improvements to its key components and elements.
Through the recommendations the Committee has proposed, it has sought to stress and reinforce the special role of the national public broadcaster, whilst recognizing private broadcasting as a key component of the system. It has given voice to the concerns of the not-for-profit broadcasters, and to the pleas of local and regional communities, including those of minority-language communities.
The Committee recognized the essential role of the CRTC as broadcasting regulator, whilst proposing several recommendations toward streamlining its governance and processes.
Indeed, the issue of governance, and of greater transparency and accountability within public institutions empowered by the Broadcasting Act, looms large in the report.
Other central questions dealt in depth by the Committee were the issues of Canadian content, of ownership including cross-media ownership, of convergence and its impact on editorial autonomy and information accessibility.
The Committee feels that all in all the report and its recommendations are balanced, credible, and achievable, and will be considered as such by the Government in its response.
The broadcasting system is vital for our lives as Canadians. It expresses our way and sense of being, it connects us as people and citizens, and it opens us to other people and peoples of the world.
As a country of vast dimensions and distances, broadcasting is the key link among us, and our voice and ears. As a nation committed to peacemaking and peacekeeping, and truly engaged in multilateralism; broadcasting opens us to the world around us, and makes us more conscious and better world-citizens.
Not only must we preserve our broadcasting system, but we must strengthen it and enhance it, so as to ensure its long-term stability and future. This report has tried to submit what we believe are credible and achievable ideas toward this end.
Clifford Lincoln, MP
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