Two Quebec unions put the issue of the province’s ban on advertising to children back on the table as part of a recent joint submission to the Minister of Canadian Heritage.

The main issue for the unions representing Quebec writers and performers – SARTEC (Société des auteurs de radio, télévision et cinema: http://www.sartec.qc.ca/info_s.html) and UDA (Union des artistes: https://www.uniondesartistes.com/) – is the negative cultural impact caused by the shortage of Canadian-made, French-language children’s programming in the province. Reopening the discussion on advertising to children is just one of their suggestions for encouraging production of kids’ shows in the province.

Anne-Marie Des Roches, director of public affairs for Union des artistes (UDA), says the ban on kids advertising resulted in private broadcasters TVA and TQS eliminating kids programming. That left it up to public broadcasters Tele-Quebec and Radio-Canada and specialty channels such as Teletoon to serve up kids programming.

But these broadcasters don’t truly fill all the cultural needs of the public, says Des Roches, simply because of the CRTC’s regulatory framework.

‘A French-language program will get the 100% Canadian content label even though it is written and dubbed in France. All the cultural objectives are gone. There’s been no discussion about children’s programming for years, only the talk of money. No one would accept this kind of situation on prime time television.’

Des Roches says as a result of the presentation last month, Minister of Canadian Heritage Liza Frulla has asked her department to deal with the Canadian Television Fund (CTF) to seek solutions to the production problem by June 1. ‘We were seeking leadership from the Minister on this, although she cannot tell the CRTC what to adopt in terms of policy, she can at least send a message that she is worried about the issue and ensure that everyone does what they need to do.’ Bob Reaume, VP media and research for the Association of Canadian Advertisers (ACA), says advertisers would welcome the opportunity to market to children in Quebec and believes advertising would help further the goals of the two unions. Reaume says, ‘The point about SARTEC and UDA is that they now realize advertising is a terrific source of funding for programming for children. Advertisers believe they can advertise to children in a very responsible and respectful way. We have a number of checks and balances in place.’ Currently advertisers wanting to reach children in Quebec buy time on U.S. border stations.

Gloria Di Ioia, managing partner at MBS – Le Group TMC in Montreal, says, ‘If the CRTC changes the ruling to match better what goes on in the rest of the country, there’s no reason why the share of the (advertising) pie wouldn’t reflect what is going on in this market.’ But, Di Ioia says, the issue really isn’t on the radar screen yet in the industry and there likely won’t be any buzz until the CRTC gets involved. ‘(The media directors’ council) will make a comment when we see where the CRTC is moving, because I think there are other issues here to be addressed other than just the money – and I’m sure there will be a number of people presenting for and against (advertising to children).’