Summary

  • The CRTC’s 28 September notice offers capacity-building funding for community-led discussions and invites expressions of interest for a joint working group on the Indigenous Broadcasting Policy.
  • The proposed group can make consensus recommendations. Its report goes to public comment and then CRTC staff, who will prepare a draft for the Commission to consider.

The Commission has built two new doors into the policy process. One leads to community-run discussions with expenses eligible for reimbursement. The other leads to a proposed working group that can shape a consensus report. Neither door moves the final decision out of the CRTC.

Broadcasting Notice of Consultation 2024-67-1, dated 28 September, says communities and groups must tell the Centre for Indigenous Environmental Resources by 27 November if they intend to host a community-led event. That advance notice is mandatory for funding eligibility. Hosts seeking reimbursement must submit a report of the discussion by 30 March 2027. Planning, venue costs, travel and translation are listed as examples of eligible expenses. Those reports will join the public record, and the public will later have a chance to comment.

The second route is a proposed joint working group of five to seven Indigenous representatives and up to three CRTC staff members. The notice calls for balance across First Nations, Inuit and Métis, regions, languages and cultural expertise, age and other identities, and broadcasting, creative and industry roles. Expressions of interest are due by 26 January 2027. The notice says the call is the primary route, while people reached through the CRTC’s Indigenous Relations Team may also be considered. Only candidates considered for membership will be contacted.

It sets desired representation but gives no scoring rubric for choosing among candidates.

Members would not be CRTC employees, though the Commission would remunerate their time. The notice estimates 30 days of work across a maximum of two years. The group would examine the public record and produce a consensus-based report with recommendations for each policy area. The CRTC would publish that report for comment; staff would then use it to finalize a draft for Commission consideration.

That sequence is the important line in the notice. The group can frame options and recommend policy. It does not adopt the policy. The CRTC launched the three-phase process in 2019; its March 2024 consultation began Phase 2. The official process page now says comments are closed, community-led events are continuing and preliminary conclusions are still upcoming. No new policy has been issued.

The next test is documentary. When the working group is named, readers can compare its membership with the balance the notice promises. When the report arrives, they can see whether it records disagreements as well as consensus. When the CRTC publishes a draft, it can show which recommendations became clauses and which did not. The notice provides no date for that report or for a final policy. Until those records exist, “co-development” describes the route into the decision, while the CRTC keeps the last signature.

Sources: CRTC, Notice 2024-67-1; Notice 2024-67; Notice 2019-217; current process page.