Digital Content Initiative (DCI) Report – June 2016

Tim Brady — chair — DCI — April 27, 2016

Since the CNMN DCI meet­ing with the Depart­ment of Cana­di­an Her­itage in Novem­ber, 2015, much has hap­pened.  The project is still very much in process, but it is moving.

1) We have begun meet­ing with var­i­ous Lib­er­al and NDP mem­bers of par­lia­ment to get their sup­port of the pro­pos­al. This is essen­tial for a pro­pos­al of this size and scope.  Poten­tial­ly spend­ing $3.5 mil­lion dol­lars of pub­lic mon­ey is a polit­i­cal, not a bureau­crat­ic, deci­sion.  We under­stand this, and are work­ing with elect­ed rep­re­sen­ta­tives. MPs have been sup­port­ive to date.

2) On April 22, 2016, the Min­is­ter of Cana­di­an Her­itage, Mélanie Joly under­lined dig­i­tal tech­nol­o­gy as a KEY com­po­nent to Cana­di­an cul­ture in a state­ment that announced the launch of a pub­lic con­sul­ta­tion on the issue, start­ing with an online ques­tion­naire that cit­i­zens could com­plete until May 20. She wants to total­ly update Cana­di­an cul­tur­al infra­struc­ture. The last time this was done was 1991!

This Min­is­ter clear­ly under­stands what things are like in 2016, so we are on the same wave­length.  This will make our job con­sid­er­ably eas­i­er — the depart­ment has pub­licly stat­ed that dig­i­tal con­tact is a major pol­i­cy issue, and that is exact­ly what we have been say­ing for 3 years (and they know this).

3) More meet­ings — fol­low­ing the Min­is­ter’s announce­ment on pub­lic con­sul­ta­tions on dig­i­tal tech­nol­o­gy, we have arranged for more meet­ings with MPs (May and June), and with high-lev­el pol­i­cy offi­cials at the Depart­ment of Cana­di­an Her­itage offi­cials (June).  The Min­is­ter’s very pub­lic con­cern for dig­i­tal con­tent has made our sales job easier.

4) CBC / Radio-Can have con­firmed that the increase in fund­ing will not trans­late into any more spe­cial­ized music on CBC/Ra­dio-Can.  We are on our own.

5) We are build­ing new part­ner­ships with oth­er mem­bers of the Cana­di­an spe­cial­ized music com­mu­ni­ty, such as Nax­os Records.

There is a sense that, if this is to hap­pen, it will hap­pen in the next two years, or not.  After that, the gov­ern­ment will be in pre-elec­tion mode, cut­ting bud­gets, etc.  So CNMN is push­ing as hard as pos­si­ble at this time to make seri­ous progress.

Want to help? Con­nect with your local MPs to get their sup­port for the DCI. Con­tact me for more infor­ma­tion: tim@timbrady.ca.

Read past bul­letin entries from this committee:
Dig­i­tal Con­tent Ini­tia­tive (DCI) Report – Octo­ber 2015 (n° 21)
Dig­i­tal Con­tent Ini­tia­tive (DCI) Report – May 2015 (n° 20)
Dig­i­tal Con­tent Ini­tia­tive (DCI) Study: The Ben­e­fits of Musi­cal Cre­ation (n° 20)
Dig­i­tal Con­tent Ini­tia­tive (DCI) Report – Dec 2014 (n° 19)
Spe­cialised Music Dig­i­tal Con­tent Cre­ation Project (n° 18)

Direct link: Dig­i­tal Con­tent Ini­tia­tive (DCI) Report  – June 2016
Return to full Bul­letin – Octo­ber 2015