Hon. Scott Tannas: Honourable senators, first, I want to thank the committee for the dozens of hours that they put into this bill, and for the care and attention that they gave to the many witnesses. I attended some — but nowhere near all — of the committee meetings during both the witness phase and the clause-by-clause phase.

I was pleased that the committee made some quite consequential amendments. As a result, I support the bill being sent back to the House of Commons. I think it reflects well upon our obligation for sober second thought.

Now, having followed the committee, received briefings and listened to the excellent speeches in this chamber thus far — and there are more to come — I want to put on the record some of my thoughts and concerns.

First, I was struck by the testimony of Peter Menzies — he is an eminent journalist, a media executive and a former vice-chair of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, or CRTC — on the intentions of the bill. I agree, based on the briefings, with what he thought was the intention of the bill. He said:

. . . this is what the ministers were saying right from the beginning. The intent was to make sure the system gets money from web giants.

If that’s the problem, my suggestion is to just address that problem. There is no need to get into user-generated content and all these other areas, and start dealing with small businesses, advancing businesses or people taking advantage of the beauty and wonder of the internet and finding success. There’s no need to shut that down.

If it’s the traditional funds that you are after and the big web giants, just focus on that.