2023
CBC: State broadcaster? Publicly funded? Independent? FRPC Comment on CBC’s claim that statements raising questions about potential government involvement in its work are “disinformation”
Side-by-side comparison of the House of Commons’ Bill C-11-3, the changes adopted by the Senate of Canada and the changes proposed by the government and presented in the House of Commons’ Order Paper for 8 March 2023
The CRTC and 21st century expectations of openness, transparency and accountability: FRPC’s Ides-of-March series
On 1 April 2023 the CRTC will turn 55. To commemorate this anniversary FRPC launched a series of daily comments about the degree to which the CRTC’s procedures and processes are open and transparent, enabling one to draw conclusions about the degree to which the Commission may be held to account.
- Openness means not hiding applications from public view (1 March 2023)
- Openness means not just describing but explaining the CRTC’s process and proceedings (2 March 2023)
- Openness means ‘real’ public hearings, published decisions and published meeting schedules (3 March 2023)
- Openness means disclosing its private meetings with those it regulates (4 March 2023)
- Openness today means easier access to CRTC programming, ownership and financial data (5 March 2023)
- Openness means knowing who sets the CRTC’s agenda (6 March 2023)
- Openness means disclosing relevant evidence (7 March 2023)
- Openness means accessible to all, not just to some or most (8 March 2023)
- Openness means timeliness (9 March 2023)
- Openness means effective engagement with the public (10 March 2023)
- Transparency means being clear (about being transparent) (11 March 2023)
- Transparency means clarity about planning process (12 March 2023)
- Transparency means disclosing dealings, including meetings (13 March 2023)
- Transparency means clear process (14 March 2023)
- Transparency means operational clarity (15 March 2023)
- Transparency means operational timeliness (16 March 2023)
- Transparency means clarity about evidence (17 March 2023)
- Transparency means access to evidence, not selective smokescreening (18 March 2023)
- Transparency means meaningful access to information (19 March 2023)
- Transparency means comparability of data over time (20 March 2023)
- Accountability means more meaningful consultation with Canadians (21 March 2023)
- Accountability means more access without the Access to Information Act (22 March 2023)
- Accountability means Information-Highway approach to due process (23 March 2023)
- Accountability means transparency about dispute-resolution outcomes (24 March 2023)
- Accountability means well-designed data collection to evaluate policy (25 March 2023)
- Accountability means public performance evaluations showing whether Parliament’s communications laws are being implemented (26 March 2023)
- Accountability means signing and publishing decisions (27 March 2023)
- Accountability means data about outcomes (28 March 2023)
- Accountability means using valid and reliable ‘metrics’ to measure performance (29 March 2023)
- Accountability requires regulator’s compliance with Parliament’s laws (30 March 2023)
- Last but not least – summarizing FRPC’s Ides-of-March series (31 March 2023)
2022
Sham hearings and secret decisions of the CRTC, 2017-2022, Research Note (Ottawa, 17 November 2022) and Excel database
Bill C-11 and drafting issues, FRPC research note (Ottawa 15 November 2022) including a table showing issues section by section and Excel database comparing the 1991 Broadcasting Act with Bill C-11-3 (as passed by the House of Commons)
Canada’s broadcasting policy and employment, FRPC research note (Ottawa, 10 June 2022)
2021
Bill C-10 and the CRTC: Ensuring procedural fairness, FRPC research note (Ottawa, January 2021)
Bill C-10 and the broadcasting policy for Canada, FRPC introductory remarks for the first session of the PIAC-FRPC law and policy conference held 3 November 2021
Bill C-10 and the discretion of the CRTC, FRPC introductory remarks for the second session of the PIAC-FRPC law and policy conference held 3 November 2021
2020
Side-by-side comparison of the 1991 Broadcasting Act and sections of other statutes with the provisions of Bill C-10 (Ottawa, November 2020)
Bleak House: Accountability and Canada’s national public broadcaster, FRPC Research Note (Ottawa, September 2020)
FRPC’s Chair: “We need a public hearing about the role of CBC”, Ottawa Citizen (31 August 2020), opinion.
Chasing down CBC’s strategy: from the one-page plan set out in CBC’s 2019 licence renewal applications, to the 53-page Strategic plan approved by CBC’s Board of Directors in March 2019, FRPC Research Note (Ottawa, March 2020) – 106-page black-and-white PDF presentation to the Board
An analysis of CBC’s financial history from 1937 to 2019: We tried to follow the money; Frodo had it easier, FRPC Research paper (Ottawa, February 2020)
2019
Eyes Wide Shut (21 August 2019), guest commentary from Kealy Wilkinson on the short- to medium-term future of Canadian television
Meetings of the CRTC, 2007-2018 (5 April 2019), results from an analysis of meetings of the CRTC’s Commissioners, from 1 January 2007, to 31 December 2018; information on which the research is based is available here
Not so much research by the Forum, but a list of submissions to the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review panel which have been made public
2018
The CRTC’s costs-orders process in telecommunications: a year later, (3 December 2018), results from an updated analysis of CRTC telecom costs orders from 2013 to November 2018 =>and an update (17 December 2018) with respect to the argument that proceedings’ complexity explains the length of time taken by the CRTC to issue costs orders
CRTC data on Parliament’s goals for broadcasting and telecommunications: what do we know? (29 October 2018), analysis of the data presented by the CRTC in its 2017 Communications Monitoring Report, and six questions about gaps in the data
Canadians’ views on mobile data (11 June 2018) Results from a survey commissioned by the FRPC with respect to TNoC CRTC 2018-98
Who decides what? Transparency in CRTC decision-making (12 June 2018), recommendations for Parliament with respect to decision-making transparency
Blocking access to Internet sites (Gatineau, 29 March 2018), Results from a survey commissioned by the FRPC with respect to Application 8663-A182-201800467
2017
Finding data about Canadian broadcasting, telecommunications and convergence (Ottawa, 28 November 2017), Suggestions for data, analysis and research related to Canadian broadcasting and telecommunications
The CRTC’s Costs-Order Process in Telecommunications, (Ottawa, 24 November 2017), Results from an analysis of CRTC telecom costs orders from 2013 to November 2017.
Changing the 2013 Wireless Code: Canadians’ views in January 2017, (Ottawa, 24 February 2017) Results from a survey commissioned by the Forum for Research and Policy in Communications (FRPC)
2016
Appointments to the CRTC, Research note (March 2016)