The heritage committee in the House of Commons approved hearings beginning next week into the future of the beleaguered Canadian Television Fund.

New Democrat heritage critic Charlie Angus made a motion in the House on Thursday calling for the hearings after reading a cable industry website that boasted the CTF is "dead, done, gone."

NDP heritage critic Charlie Angus called for committee hearings into the Canadian Television Fund.
(Parliament of Canada)

Heritage Minister Bev Oda met with Canada's five largest cable companies on Tuesday to talk about the CTF, which funds Canadian television programs such as DeGrassi Next Generation, Da Vinci's City Hall and Trailer Park Boys.

A cable industry website published an analysis of the meeting on Thursday that quotes Ken Stein, the senior vice-president of Shaw Communications in Calgary, saying: "The fund can't be fixed. It's dead, done, gone. The fund has failed."

The cable companies believe the minister supports their position that the CTF should be shut down, Angus said.

Angus has been critical of Oda for failing to rebuke Shaw and Vidéotron Ltée., which have both cut off funding to the CTF.

The other three cable firms would be "nuts to continue to abide by the rules if the two biggest players can rewrite the rules," Angus said. "This sends a signal to the rest of the industry — if you don't like the terms of your CRTC licence, just rewrite it." 

Angus said he was forced to call for hearings because Oda failed to do her job. The motion was unanimously approved in parliament.

"Was she simply unable to stand up to this outrageous attack on the CTF or was she in for the fix from the get go with her industry pals?"  he asked in the House on Thursday.

Angus said he would like to hear from the cable companies at heritage committee hearings into the CTF, which would begin next week.

He also wants representation from the CTF, from Canada's television producers and from the CBC. Both Vidéotron and Shaw have objected to funding the CTF when its funding covers programming that runs on the public broadcaster.

Oda met with CTF chair Douglas Barrett and two other CTF executives on Thursday to talk about the cable companies' concerns.

She also heard about the difficulties the CTF is having continuing to fund productions without the portion of its funding being withheld by Shaw and Vidéotron.
 
The CTF plans to  support all eligible productions for the 2006-07 year but has to borrow money against uncertain future revenues, said CTF spokeswoman MaryBeth McKenzie.

Oda also signalled her intention to meet with TV producers next week to talk about the CTF, McKenzie said.

However, Angus is worried the fix is in and Oda has already decided to kill the fund.

"The minister, who is supposed to defend the CTF, has been an enemy of the whole notion of production obligations from the beginning," he said.

"She was the dissenting voice on the CRTC against the creation of a cable production fund. She fought against making cable companies pay into this fund. And she is the minister who will oversee killing this fund."