Photo: The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

A viewer watches a live stream of Netflix global public policy director Corie Wright testifying before the CRTC on Friday September 19, 2014. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

Regulating the Internet to help boost Canadian content will only hurt consumers, a Netflix executive told the country's broadcast regulator on Friday before being ordered to hand over confidential company information.

In an occasionally tense appearance before the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, Corie Wright urged the broadcast regulator to let market forces dictate what consumers can watch.

The impact of Netflix and other online video providers on the country's traditional TV broadcasting sector is central to the public hearings before the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.

Wright, Netflix Inc.'s global public policy director, told the five-member CRTC panel that regulating Internet-based video services would fly in the face of competition, innovation and consumer choice.

"Netflix believes that regulatory intervention online is unnecessary and could have consequences that are inconsistent with the interests of consumers," Wright told the final day of hearings.

She said viewers should have the ability "to vote with their dollars and eyeballs to shape the media marketplace."

Several cultural groups, along with at least two provincial governments and a content production group, have argued in favour of regulating Netflix and other online video services, essentially forcing them to pay into funds designed to help finance Canadian television production.

But the Harper government has said it would oppose any tax on Internet-based services, specifically citing Netflix and YouTube.