A new report into the Canadian Television Fund is calling for major changes to how television and multi-media content are financed in Canada.

In a report filed recently by the Senate’s committee on transport and communications, lawmakers make six recommendations, including changing the Broadcasting Act to make monthly payments to the CTF mandatory for cable companies. The report, which responds to last winter’s CTF crisis when Shaw Communications and Videotron temporarily stopped making payments to the fund, also calls for the creation of an ‘arms length dispute resolution mechanism’ to deal with concerns raised by cable companies that pump cash into the fund.

Authored by a committee of roughly a dozen senators — including Pat Carney and former journalist Jim Munson — the 23-page report also says the CTF money earmarked for programs that air on CBC/Radio-Canada should be ‘re-examined,’ and that the public broadcaster should be more upfront about how much of its programming budget comes from the CTF.

It also says the effectiveness of the CTF should be assessed annually ‘using objective measures such as audience shares and revenues,’ and that part of the CTF should also be used to support multi-media projects.

The report addresses concerns put forward by both Videotron and Shaw during their pullout from CTF, including the fund’s corporate-governance structure, the private sector’s lack of say in its operations, and its investment performance.

A report from parliament’s Heritage committee, also in response to the fund’s recent troubles, said in March that CTF should stay as is — though Tory and Bloc Quebecois MPs disagreed.

Under current fund guidelines, cable companies must contribute 5% of their annual revenues to the CTF. Last year Shaw contributed $56 million, while Videotron kicked in $15.2 million.

The CRTC is currently undergoing a review of the fund that includes studying a proposal by Quebecor — the owner of Videotron — to create a private sector fund to finance television programming. Members of the committee were not available for comment at press time.