Vol. 144, No. 14 — July 7, 2010

Registration

SOR/2010-157 June 23, 2010

BROADCASTING ACT

Regulations Amending the Broadcasting Licence Fee Regulations, 1997

Whereas, pursuant to subsection 11(5) of the Broadcasting Act (see footnote a), a copy of the proposed Regulations amending the Broadcasting Licence Fee Regulations, 1997, substantially in the annexed form, was published in the Canada Gazette, Part I, on January 2nd, 2010 and a reasonable opportunity was afforded to licensees and other interested persons to make representations to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission with respect to the proposed Regulations;

Therefore, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, with the approval of the Treasury Board, pursuant to subsection 11(1) of the Broadcasting Act (see footnote b), hereby makes the annexed Regulations Amending the Broadcasting Licence Fee Regulations, 1997.

Gatineau, Quebec, June 23, 2010

ROBERT A. MORIN
Secretary General
Canadian Radio-television and
Telecommunications Commission

REGULATIONS AMENDING THE BROADCASTING LICENCE FEE REGULATIONS, 1997

AMENDMENTS

1. Paragraph 3(b) of the Broadcasting Licence Fee Regulations, 1997 (see footnote 1) is replaced by the following:

(b) a Part II licence fee, payable on or before December 1 in each year.

2. Section 11 of the Regulations is replaced by the following:

11. (1) A Part II licence fee is equal to the amount determined by the formula

X/Y x Z

where

X is the licensee’s fee revenues for the return year terminating during the previous calendar year, less that licensee’s exemption level for that return year;

Y is the aggregate fee revenues for the return year terminating during the previous calendar year of all licensees whose fee revenues exceed the applicable exemption levels, less the aggregate exemption level for all those licensees for that return year; and

Z is the lesser of

(a) $100,000,000, and

(b) 1.365% multiplied by the amount determined for Y.

(2) Commencing in 2011, the amount set out in paragraph (a) of the description of Z in subsection (1) shall be adjusted annually on a compound basis in accordance with the percentage increase or decrease, as the case may be, to the Consumer Price Index for the calendar year prior to the year of the adjustment. The Consumer Price Index is the annual average all-items Consumer Price Index for Canada (not seasonally adjusted) that is published by Statistics Canada.

(3) The Commission shall publish the amount determined for Z each year in a public notice in the Canada Gazette, Part I.

(4) The Commission shall invoice a licensee for the Part II licence fee no later than November 1 of the year in which the fee is due.

(5) For the purposes of this section, the reference to “most recently completed return year” in paragraph (b) of the definition “fee revenue” in section 1 shall be read as a reference to the “return year terminating during the previous calendar year”.

COMING INTO FORCE

3. These Regulations come into force on the day on which they are registered.

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations.)

The purpose of the amendments is to limit the Part II broadcasting licence fees to the lesser of the current Part II licence fees, calculated according to section 11 of the Broadcasting Licence Fee Regulations, 1997 before the amendments, and $100 million, adjusted in the years after 2010 by the changes to the Consumer Price Index.

Footnote a
S.C. 1991, c. 11

Footnote b
S.C. 1991, c. 11

Footnote 1
SOR/97-144

NOTICE:
The format of the electronic version of this issue of the Canada Gazette was modified in order to be compatible with extensible hypertext markup language (XHTML 1.0 Strict).