OTTAWA -- A massive, 18-month broadcasting study by the Commons heritage committee recommends maintaining current foreign ownership limits, placing a moratorium on media convergence and increasing funding for the CBC while making it more accountable to Parliament. The 872-page report, tabled yesterday in the Commons, is titled Our Cultural Sovereignty -- a clear indication of the document's policy direction.

"We believe that Canadians lack neither the will, nor the capital nor the imagination to make Canadian broadcasting a world leader in the 21st century," committee chairperson Clifford Lincoln, a Liberal MP, said in a release.

"We have an optimistic vision and a faith that Canadians can do the job."

The report covers everything from aboriginal broadcasting to the digital revolution, copyright and the satellite grey market, but its most contentious recommendations go to the heart of submissions from some of Canada's largest private media conglomerates.

Janet Yale, president of of the Canadian Cable Television Association, said she is "disappointed" with the report.

She agrees with maintaining limits on foreign ownership of Canadian broadcasting operations but not on cable and satellite carriers.

"You have to make sure there's access to the capital that's going to allow the infrastructure to support these new obligations," Yale said.

Brian Topp, executive director of ACTRA Toronto, countered that someone has finally spoken out for the country's broadcasting industry and the report has much to recommend it. He said the committee makes a good case on convergence.

"Diversity of views in the marketplace is a real issue," said Topp. "I think they're on the right track."

The committee calls on the federal government to create a new cross-media policy by June 30, 2004. In the meantime, it says no new broadcast licences involving such entities should be granted.

Existing multimedia outlets should be allowed to renew licences but only for a maximum period of three years rather than the current seven.

"The committee is of the view that the potential problems with the cross-media ownership are sufficiently severe that the time has come for the federal government to issue a clear and unequivocal policy on this matter," says the report.

The committee also recommends the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission "strengthen its policies on the separation of newsroom activities in cross-media ownership situations to ensure that editorial independence is upheld."

It wants an annual report to Parliament on the issue.

As for raising foreign ownership for Canadian broadcasters and telecommunications -- currently limited to 46.7 per cent -- the heritage committee was particularly adamant.

The report takes direct aim at recommendations from the Commons industry committee in April that proposed dropping the limits.

The heritage members called their fellow parliamentarians' work "an extremely simplistic approach to a complex set of issues.

"In particular, the (industry) report ignores the many public policy and cultural issues that are at the heart of the matter."

But private broadcasters did get the nod for one of their key suggestions to the committee -- excessive licensing fees are discriminatory and should be eliminated, says the report.

The industry says those licenses take in an extra $90 million.

Among the report's 97 other recommendations:

- Provide increased and multiyear funding to the CBC.

- Make the CBC subject to Treasury Board guidelines on outcomes and strategic plans on a annual basis.

- Provide increased and stable funding to the Canadian Television Fund, which saw its budget cut by $25 million in February.

- Create a single government ministry to oversee broadcasting, which is currently split between Heritage and Industry, and replace three acts covering broadcasting, telecommunications and the CRTC with a single piece of legislation.