Nirmala Naidoo to the annual conference of the National Campus and Community Radio Association

Press Release

From: Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission

June 18, 2025

Nirmala Naidoo, Commissioner for Alberta and the Northwest Territories
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC)

Check against delivery

Thank you for the invitation to speak today and for that warm welcome. Before I begin, I would like to acknowledge that we are on the traditional territory of the Coast Salish Peoples, including the traditional territories of the Snuneymuxw and Snaw-Naw-As First Nations. I thank them and pay respect to their Elders.

Let me begin by saying: it’s great to be among my fellow broadcasters. In my short time with you today so far, I can see the excitement and exuberance for community broadcasting and news that so many of you have. It’s wonderful to be around that energy once again.

My background is in the other side of broadcasting, of course, in television. But as a former journalist and anchor, and current CRTC Commissioner for Alberta and the Northwest Territories, I share your passion. Across my career I have seen firsthand how broadcasting connects people and how trusted sources of news can help inform public debate.

And community and campus radio, as you all know, is all about connecting people. From its beginnings at Queen’s University amongst some student hobbyists in the 1920s, community and campus radio has blossomed into a vibrant community. There are stations across our country, from CHLY-FM here in Nanaimo to CJBI-FM broadcasting from Bell Island in Newfoundland and Labrador, and everywhere in between. Each of them plays a vital role in connecting Canadians in their communities to new opportunities, new artists, and the local news and information that matters to them.

Campus and community stations continue to be a great entry point into radio for so many Canadians. I will give you a personal example from my own time at the University of Alberta to illustrate what I mean. For myself and so many of my fellow students, our campus radio station at the University of Alberta, CJSR, was our gateway into the world of local broadcasting. At CJSR we created content tailored specifically to our audience – our fellow students and the surrounding community.

It was staffed and supported by the community it served. It was a place of hands-on learning, where students gained the real-world experience that would later become a career for some. It might have been only a few steps from our classrooms, but our time there prepared us better than any textbook could have.

For some, campus and community radio provided the first step to a career in broadcast journalism or radio production. For others, community and campus radio provided a launching pad to stardom: Bob Cole, the longtime Hockey Night in Canada announcer started his career as a volunteer at CHFM in St. John’s; Tom Green hosted an overnight program in Ottawa on CHUO-FM; and back at the University of Alberta, I was lucky enough to witness k.d. lang’s rise from precocious talent to international star. Though lang would have certainly risen to the top regardless, I like to think CJSR played a small role in her emergence as we continually wore out recordings of her local band k.d. and the Reclines long before the artist’s Grammy wins and appearances on David Letterman.

Connecting Canadians through broadcasting

These are the types of Canadian success stories we love to see. And currently at the CRTC, we are focused on modernizing our broadcasting framework so we can ensure those same opportunities are still there for Canada’s next generation of radio producers, broadcast journalists, and yes, hockey announcers, comedians, and country western virtuosos.

But before I get to the details of some of our ongoing proceedings, I’d like to give you one more example from my experiences, this one from earlier this year. I want to show you how the goals of NCRA members and those of the CRTC are often aligned and, importantly, how you can help us reach our goals together.

Earlier this year I had the privilege of being on a panel that was considering two applications for a new radio licence to serve the community of Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories. The CRTC is still considering the applications and the public record, and we expect to issue our decision in the coming weeks.

But I bring up that hearing not to discuss the decision, but to relate the incredible levels of engagement we saw in Yellowknife concerning local radio. Over two days in Yellowknife we convened in front of a packed and engaged audience, many of whom lined up first thing in the morning to ensure a seat. And in February, that meant braving temperatures of minus forty – you would have thought k.d. lang herself was going to be there.

We heard from local and Indigenous residents, musicians, journalists, business owners and more. We heard, and could clearly see, how important local radio was to this community. How they depended on local news from trusted local sources. How evacuees and first responders relied on local radio for vital information during last year’s devastating wildfires. And we heard how important it was for those stations to be staffed and run by people in their communities who know their markets.

I imagine for many of you that is starting to sound familiar, and well it should. Local radio is grounded in the communities they serve, whether they are broadcasting in remote areas or for localized communities living in our largest cities. And at the CRTC, we are working to ensure the conditions are favourable for radio stations to be part of the future of Canadian broadcasting.

But to do that, we need your help. The CRTC is an independent quasi-judicial tribunal that regulates the Canadian communications sector in the public interest and makes decisions based on the public record. And that last point is key. All of our decisions are based on the interventions, submissions, and contributions of anyone who wants to provide input on our proceedings – from the largest broadcasters to members of the public.

So when it comes to shaping the future of Canadian broadcasting, everyone has a role to play. You know your communities better than anyone else – we need your input to help us understand the needs of your stations and the communities you serve.

Public participation is critical to CRTC proceedings. It’s how we ensure that the decisions we make are in the public interest, and how we ensure Canadians have access to the media, entertainment, and news that they enjoy and need.

There are so many ways you can engage with the CRTC: by submitting a formal intervention, chatting with me here today, or simply giving us a call with your questions. Some of my colleagues are here with me today. They would be happy to answer your questions, and we have brought some cards in case you need to contact us in the future.

When you take part in our proceedings, you are giving your stations and the communities you serve a voice in the regulatory process. So I encourage you to do so, either as part of the NCRA, your individual station, or simply as someone who listens and watches to content on radio, television or online.

I would like to take the rest of my time today to turn to the broadcasting modernization process, our environment, and a few of our ongoing proceedings.

Modernizing the broadcasting industry and ongoing radio policy proceedings

We started the modernization process soon after Parliament adopted the Online Streaming Act, which amended the Broadcasting Act. While we have been moving quickly, this is the first major overhaul of Canada’s broadcasting frameworks since 1993 – it’s a big job.

And as we have been working, we have been watching alongside all of you as the world in which we operate has become more unstable and uncertain. We know that the broadcasting industry is not immune to those currents of change.

So it has made our job doubly difficult: we must do what we can to address the current challenges facing the broadcasting industry while also ensuring the frameworks we create will sustain a successful broadcasting system years into the future.

We are taking into account both of these goals in all of our proceedings. There are two ongoing in particular concerning audio broadcasting that I would like to touch on.

The first is our proceeding focused on reducing the regulatory burden on radio stations operating in Canada. By streamlining requirements, our goal is to help radio stations remain dynamic and competitive while still ensuring their programming serves the public interest.

I know the NCRA submitted an intervention in this proceeding, and we thank you for it. We will continue to review all the information submitted on the public record, and will make a decision on this key issue as quickly as possible.

Secondly, there is a review of the definition of Canadian content for audio services. In line with our efforts on the audio-visual side, we need to modernize our approach to radio and audio regulatory policy. So earlier this year, we sought comments on the definition for audio services, and received comments from a wide range of groups, communities, and industry members. Everything submitted to us will help us update the definition of Canadian content for audio services.

This included French-speaking, Indigenous and official language-minority communities – many of which I know your members serve. If we are going to ensure our broadcasting system supports our homegrown musicians, we need to ensure the definition of Canadian content captures the full breadth of our country.

The updated definition will be used to support the creation, distribution, and discoverability of Canadian and Indigenous audio content across radio and online audio streaming platforms.

Ultimately, we want to ensure our system gives Canadians access to the audio and music content they want, and our aim is to help ensure that content can be easily discovered and enjoyed.

And the timing for this update is fortuitous – we can see that perhaps at no other time in Canadian history has there been such an appetite for Canadian talent and a desire across the country to see Canadians succeed. We want to help ensure our broadcasting frameworks are creating the conditions for Canadian musicians, artists, and performers to excel.

Supporting local news

At the same time, we are focused on ensuring local news is part of the Canadian broadcasting system and widely available. Given the instability I mentioned before and the growing prevalence of natural disasters like the wildfires currently affecting the Prairies, ensuring local news and information is widely available is more critical than it has ever been.

Just as we heard in Yellowknife, we know this includes community radio stations. That’s why we decided the Community Radio Fund of Canada would receive additional funding as part of last year’s decision on base contributions that online services must make to support the Canadian broadcasting system. Community, campus and Indigenous stations can benefit through the Local Journalism Initiative administered by the Fund.

And we are also currently looking at how to help support local news produced by commercial radio stations. Late last year we held a consultation on this, and we are exploring how we can best support local stations in rural and remote communities. We are currently considering an application submitted by the Canadian Association of Broadcasters to run this fund, as well as all submissions made to us as part of this proceeding. We hope to have a decision ready in the coming weeks.

Additionally, as part of our implementation of the Online News Act, we have established a framework which aims to ensure the largest online platforms fairly compensate Canadian news organizations when their content appears on those services. Google has secured an exemption from the mandatory bargaining under the Act and has committed $100 million annually for five years to support Canadian news organizations. Google’s initial contribution is being disbursed by the Canadian Journalism Collective, and news organizations across Canada are now receiving funding as a result of the Act.

Finally, I want to mention a decision we made just last week to modify the Independent Local News Fund, or ILNF. The decision was made after a consultation last fall reviewing the ILNF and its support for local news. We wanted to make sure that local, independent television stations across the country were supported as they produced news. We also wanted to address how any additional funding coming into the audio-visual broadcasting system should be allocated.

The decision is an important step in supporting local news and information, and confirms that high-quality and diverse local news are an integral part of the Canadian broadcasting system. It also ensures that Canadians have access to local news and information in whatever medium they prefer: all recipients of ILNF funding are now required to make their local news and information available online.

Although this recent decision supports television broadcasters, I mention it to point out how seriously we are taking the importance of local news and content. It remains a central part of Canadian broadcasting, and impartial news and information is something to be protected and preserved for years into the future.

Conclusion

The decisions and proceedings I have detailed today are key pieces of our ongoing work, but they are just a part of our overall modernizing of Canada’s broadcasting frameworks.

And the message I want to leave you with today is that taken together, all of our proceedings, whether we are talking about removing regulatory burden or revising Canadian content definitions, are about connecting people.

These are goals the CRTC and NCRA members share.

We want to connect Canadians to the music and content they enjoy.

We want to connect artists to new opportunities and new audiences.

And we want to connect all Canadians to the local news and information they need, when they need it.

These goals shape our decisions in the same way they guide the work you do each and every day at your local station.

So, as I mentioned before, work with us. Contribute to our proceedings. Help give your communities and your stations a voice.

Let’s work together to set up the next generation of Canadian broadcasting to succeed, to excel, and to thrive.

Thank you.

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