I recently received a notice from my cable company advising that beginning September 1, a surcharge of 1.5% will be added to my total bill every month. It’s a CRTC fee collected in order to “protect” local programming in markets of less than 1,000,000 people. (In Canada, MOST markets are less than 1,000,000 people. I can think of only four cities that exceed 1,000,000 people, seven tops if we include total metropolitain and suburban areas as one market)

So, I now have to contribute to paying for programming that people in smaller communities can not afford to pay for themselves because there are too few people to generate sufficient revenue to make the program viable. In other words, the government is forcing me to finance an economically unviable venture with absolutely no return possible on my “investment”. Actually, I’m not “forced” – the CRTC very arrogantly explained to me that if I don’t like the fee, I can simply cancel my cable (or satellite or digital broadcast) subscription! The CRTC knows very well that in Canada, these are the only practical ways to receive TV signals; over-the-air broadcasts are effectively non-existent.

The fee amounts to only $2.00 per month in my case, but that’s not the point. The principle is deeply flawed and there are so many “minor fees” for myriad issues imposed by all levels of government that it adds up to significant cost on a monthly basis. (Another example is that I have to put a $3.50 sticker on every bag of garbage I put to the curb, despite paying annual property taxes of over $7,500 that are supposed to finance garbage collection)

There are no more privileges in Canada, only entitlements. Nothing has to be earned anymore. Those communities that can’t generate an audience for local programming don’t look to themselves and ask, “What could we do to draw an audience that will be interested in our programming and attract sponsorships to pay for it?”. Or if sponsors are out of the question, selling subscriptions and memberships. They instead blame the government for not supporting their “right” to local programming and cry about how unfair it is. And the government obliges!

The CRTC, and apparently the FCC, are nothing but impedements to freedom, existing only to further the political aspirations of whichever government presides at the time.

Thanks!
Michael