Some of the biggest players in the Quebec film and TV industry want the federal government to ignore a report that recommends reviewing Canadian cultural policies and opening up the broadcasting industry to foreign investment.

The five-person Competition Policy Review Panel was commissioned by the government last July amid rising concerns over foreign takeovers. Chaired by Lynton Wilson, former chief executive of BCE Inc., the 134-page report, entitled ‘Compete to Win,’ was released June 26.

‘It’s a question of identity. It would be too big a risk to open up the broadcasting industry to more foreign investment,’ says Céline Pelletier, spokesperson for Quebec’s independent producers association, the APFTQ. ‘How likely is it that the CRTC would be able to regulate a company such as Time Warner?’

Pelletier says if the government follows through on the report’s recommendations, it will become a major issue in the next federal election. ‘This report ignores the cultural sector,’ she says.

In a release issued Tuesday, the APFTQ, along with four other Quebec associations representing writers, directors and technicians — the Association québécoise de l’industrie du disque, du spectacle et de la vidéo (ADISQ) the Alliance québécoise des techniciens de l’image et du son (AQTIS), the Association des réalisateurs et réalisatrices du Québec (ARRQ) and the Société des auteurs de radio, télévision et cinéma (SARTEC) — blasts the Competition Policy Review Panel report.

‘They didn’t listen to us. The report treats telecommunications and broadcasting as if they are the same. But they are completely different. The question of protecting Canadian content is barely addressed,’ says Pelletier.

In its report, the review panel says the Broadcasting Act and the Telecommunications Act are more geared to ‘the past than the present,’ because media convergence is making it harder to separate the two sectors.

In order to make Canada more competitive, the panel wants the industry minister to amend the Telecommunications Act to allow foreign companies to establish new telecommunications businesses in Canada or to acquire existing companies with a market share of up to 10 percent of the telecommunications market in Canada. The report concludes that Canadian culture will thrive in a less regulated environment.