The way to "promote" any industry or endeavour is though the tax system.
Canada has a large and diverse
infotainment industry that ranges in size from individual blogs and podcast to very large corporations like Bell, the CBC, CTV and Rogers.
Some of it, the CBC, especially, is already openly publicly funded. Should it be? Do we still need that model 90+ years after the
Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission was established as a public entity and acquired the then privately owned (since 1923) radio stations and studios of the
Canadian National Railway Network?
Many nations decided, in the 1920s and '30s, that radio broadcasting was a
public service and should be public, government controlled
monopoly. Some still exist, but not, I suggest in any country to which most of us voluntarily emigrate.
Lets take two service providers at opposite end of the business spectrum:
- Big corporation R owns over-the-air radio and television stations, production facilities, newspapers, web based services, sports teams and heaven alone know what else and "beam' their messages to us, like it or not, 24/7; meanwhile
- Individual podcaster J owns a computer and few bits and pieces and hopes that handful of us listen too his ideas.
Both incur legitimate business expenses; in a fair system both should be able to claim those expenses - a new computer and webcam, for example, every couple of years and part of his monthly internet bill for
J and millions of $$$ every month for
R. But that's not how it works, is it? The
government reserves the
right to decide that
R is a legitimate business while
J is not, (s)he's just an individual pursuing a hobby. But both are offering Canadians the exact same service:
infotainment and both are using a mix of public and private resources - including the radio spectrum - to so so. Why should they be treated, why the tax codes, any differently?
