Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault mentioned on Monday that the government has no plans to imply a regulative regime on Canadian media organizations when a report last week suggesting immense new powers for the CRTC sparked considerations of regulative overreach.

Guilbeault stated on Monday,

“Let me be clear, our government has no intention to impose licensing requirements on news organizations, nor will we try to regulate news content. We are committed to a free and independent press, which is essential to your democracy,”

His comments came 2 days later when he gave an interview on CTV’s Power, within which he tried to disregard considerations about the previous weeks Broadcast and Telecommunications Legislative Review panel report, however within the workings, it seemed that’s media houses will have to register themselves with institutions having to register with the Canadian government to operate in Canada.

Further adding Guilbeault said, “Media can be confusing, I recognize that, because the report talks about media but not necessarily in the sense, necessarily, of news agencies, and maybe the confusion comes from there,”

Resale competition is permited. The issue arises from #CRTC mandating access terms as contrasted with negotiations. Regulator can only get it wrong setting terms of interconnection: too high or too low; stagnant architectures, etc. Have we learned nothing from wireline battles? — Mark Goldberg (@Mark_Goldberg) February 4, 2020

Although Guilbeault has made massive efforts to pacify these concerns, critics are still shocked by the BLRT report and the strength it CRTC over Canadian online content.

Adding his last comments Guilbeault explained, “Obviously media is capturing the attention today. They talk about app stores. They talk about operating systems. They were asked last week about video games. There is practically nothing that touches the internet or digital world that the panel seems to think is beyond the reach of the CRTC.”