The Department of Canadian Heritage has launched a review of the federal government’s cultural policy toolkit that could bring significant changes to the governance framework that underpins the broadcasting, media and cultural industries.
Announced this past weekend by Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly, the review is a response to the digital shift that is transforming the creative sector. The stated goal of the review is to ensure that Canadian content is positioned to succeed in an increasingly global marketplace which, as stakeholders well know, has been buffeted by the rapid evolution of new technologies that have changed the ways content is created and consumed.
Minister Joly made it clear in an interview with the Globe and Mail that each of the main governance levers – laws, policies, institutions and programs – will be evaluated. She told the Globe that she believes “the current model is broken, and we need to have a conversation to bring it up to date” and that “everything is on the table”.
Beyond a generally “digital approach”, it’s anyone’s guess as to what the policy outcomes of the review will be. The minister has indicated that she doesn’t want to go into consultations with preconceived notions of what they might yield, and has refused to speculate about eventual changes. However, the “drivers of change” articulated in the announcement of the review provide some sense of the likely focus:
- A fluid environment that blurs traditional categories like “creator” and “user”, “artists” and “audience”, and “professional” and “amateur”;
- The emergence of new players and intermediaries that have disrupted traditional business models;
- An increasingly open and interconnected world in which access to a global marketplace comes at the price of stiff competition in formerly local cultural markets; and
- Changes in consumer expectations driven by increased digital connectivity and mobility.
The consensus from the commentariat is that the review will be the most comprehensive re-evaluation of the industry since the Mulroney government revised the Broadcasting Act in 1991.
Content producers and other stakeholders should note that an online “pre-consultation questionnaire” can be accessed on the ministry’s website until May 20, 2016. The pre-consultation will help define the scope of the public consultation which will begin this summer and wrap up by the end of the year. An expert advisory group will be struck to shepherd the review, which is officially called Strengthening Canadian Content Creation, Discovery and Export in a Digital World.
