Jim Shaw makes no bones about it: Ottawa is not his kind of town. But that doesn't mean he doesn't know how to move the dial here.
The CEO of Calgary-based Shaw Communications blew though yesterday -- en route to his new home on a golf course in Palm Desert.
He was present to explain his role in the recent fracas over the Canadian Television Fund to the parliamentary heritage committee.
While Mr. Shaw has now agreed to resume monthly payments to the fund, he is resolutely unrepentant about his unorthodox method of drawing attention to a situation he considers untenable.
"You may disagree with our methods," said Mr. Shaw of his company's announcement last December that it was suspending its federally mandated payments to the fund.
"But the TV production industry can't remain forever dependent on the CTF and the CTF can't remain dependent on taxing Canadian companies.
"
In one of several testy exchanges, Liberal MP Andy Scott asked what assurance Mr. Shaw would give that he wouldn't repeat his behaviour if he didn't like the way things go following a fund review.
Mr.
Shaw shot back, "What assurances are you going to give me that you'll fix this for Canadians?"
In his defence, he noted that Shaw has complained for years about the "cloak and dagger" financial management of the fund (most recently last October before the CRTC) and only "sincere and co-operative consultations have reassured us that our message has been heard."
In any case, there's not much question that Shaw's corporate tantrum has yielded the desired result: the CRTC yesterday announced that it's responding to the situation with a new task force "to develop a consensus to resolve the concerns raised by stakeholders" and "to set out possible options to resolve any remaining issues.
"
Heritage Minister Bev Oda has also been drawn into the fray by Shaw's rebellion, meeting with various parties in the aftermath and brokering a consensus on how to overhaul the embattled fund.
"I'm pretty sure there's some sort of tacit agreement and promises of change in place or Shaw and Videotron wouldn't have stepped back into line at all," said NDP heritage critic Charlie Angus. "It's clear that Shaw just doesn't want to pay into the CTF.
"
He also claimed the government is anxious to deflect some of the heat that's been generated by the television fund impasse and that after the CRTC task force report, "they'll likely come back with some complicated formula when things have blown over a bit."
Whether or not such a backroom pact exists, the issues in French and English television markets are somewhat different. And while Shaw has consistently focused on the issue of improving quality and tracking viewership for independent Canadian programming in English, the CEO of Groupe Videotron, Pierre-Karl Peladeau, defended his company's decision to follow Shaw in the face of "total inertia and absence of response to concerns" about its fund obligations in the Quebec market.
News RSS