Broadcasting - Secretary General Letter addressed to Jean-François Leclerc, Nicolas Leclerc (Leclerc Communication Inc.) and Peggy Tabet (Quebecor Media Inc.)
Ottawa–Gatineau, 13 February 2025
Reference: 2024-0604-0
BY EMAIL
Jean-François Leclerc
Vice-President, Programming
Nicolas Leclerc
Secretary and Vice-President Sales
Leclerc Communication Inc.
815 Boulevard Lebourgneuf
Office 505
Québec, Quebec G2J 0C1
Peggy Tabet
Vice-President, Regulatory and environmental affairs
Quebecor Media Inc.
612 St-Jacques West
15th floor, South Tower
Montréal, Quebec H3C 4M8
Subject: Designation as confidential of the Memorandum of Understanding between Leclerc Communication Inc. (Leclerc) and Quebecor Media Inc. (Quebecor) concerning the programming of CJPX-FM Montréal (99.5 FM)
Dear Jean-François Leclerc, Nicolas Leclerc and Peggy Tabet,
Thank you for your letter dated 16 December 2024 and filed on behalf of Leclerc Communication Inc. and Quebecor Media Inc. (the parties) in response to the Secretary General letter dated 11 December 2024.
In your letter, you indicated that you accept full disclosure of the 22 October 2024 response to Commission staff clarification questions regarding the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and that you agree to the partial disclosure of the MOU between Leclerc and NumériQ Inc. (NumériQ), a subsidiary of Quebecor. However, you asked the Commission to keep certain additional passages of the MOU confidential. In this letter, you have also provided general statements regarding the possible harm of making this information public to support your request that these passages be treated as confidential.
Subsection 25.3(1) of the Broadcasting Act specifies that a person who submits information to the Commission may designate as confidential certain information if it falls within one of the categories described in that subsection. Pursuant to subsections 25.3(4) and (5), the Commission may make or require disclosure of information designated as confidential if it considers such disclosure to be in the public interest.
The Commission notes the parties’ comments and considers, by majority decision, that the parties have not demonstrated sufficient harm that would outweigh the public interest in disclosure. The Commission considers that the information provided is useful to enable the public to make informed comments on the circumstances surrounding the programming control of CJPX-FM Montréal, operated by Leclerc, as well as the effective control of the station, and that disclosure of this information would serve the public interest.
For these reasons, the Commission is of the view that while the contents of Appendices B and C may be designated as confidential, some of the additional passages identified by the parties as confidential cannot be treated as such. Attached to this letter is the Commission’s determination regarding the confidentiality designations of the MOU.
To complete the public record of application 2024-0604-0 filed on 20 November 2024 by Cogeco Inc. (Cogeco), on behalf of its subsidiary Cogeco Media Inc., and Bell Media Inc. (Bell Media), and to permit the disclosure of information in the public interest, an abridged version reflecting the determination set out in the attached MOU must be filed with the Commission no later than 18 February 2025.
The new abridged version of the MOU, as determined by the Commission, will be added to the public record of application 2024-0604-0 for public examination once submitted to the Commission by the parties. As a result, the intervention period has been extended by 30 days and the deadline for the submission of the reply adjusted accordingly (period of 5 days) to allow the public to comment on the new information on the record. Any interested parties may file an intervention by 27 February 2025 and Cogeco and Bell Media may file a reply by 4 March 2025.
A copy of this letter (with the exception of the attachment) will be added to the public record for application 2024-0604-0 and will be available for public review.
Marc Morin
Secretary General
Attachment (1) – MOU between Leclerc and NumériQ
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