OTTAWA — Ontario Culture minister Aileen Carroll and the Ontario Media Development Corporation sided with the creative community on Monday, calling for Internet and wireless service providers to contribute to the creation of Canadian online content.

As the CRTC’s new media hearing continued, Carroll noted that it is difficult for producers to get their content on closed new media platforms, especially mobile, and that they rarely have the bargaining power to ensure that broadcasters will make use of new media rights.

To that end, Carroll supported the CFTPA’s call for a ‘use it or lose it’ provision in such rights; forcing the hand of broadcasters to make shows available online within a specific time.

‘Without access, economic and cultural investment in Canadian content production is wasted,’ she stated. Her remarks came as the federal Heritage Minister, James Moore, announced that the Canadian Television Fund and the Canada New Media Fund will be merged into a new fund, driven by ratings and aimed at all platforms, starting in 2010.

Carroll wants new media broadcasting to remain exempt from regulation, but for added conditions that would compel ISPs and WSPs to contribute to a new media fund.

‘It is just as difficult to put together a financing structure for new media content as it is for traditional broadcasting content,’ said OMDC president and CEO Karen Thorne-Stone.

CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein pressed Carroll on whether she favored an overall digital strategy for the new media industry, as advocated by NFB chair Tom Perlmutter.

‘A first blush, it seems like the right approach,’ she responded, adding though that additional funding could come now. ‘The Ontario government needs to invest in new media, and needs you to take a similar view.’