With a number of interventions by cabinet over the past year, we have seen Industry Minister Bernier taking steps to implement some of the recommendations of the Telecom Policy Review panel.
One of the easy to overlook recommendations of the report is the streamlining of the policy direction process, coupled with the removal of the cabinet appeal process. Recommendation 9-5 says:
The policy direction power should be transferred into a more effective policy-making instrument by … (c) repealing the Cabinet power to review individual CRTC telecommunications decisions.
An article in the Wall Street Journal yesterday said that the Communication and Technology sector was the leading spender of lobbyist dollars in the US in the first half of 2006, ahead of healthcare, finance and energy sectors. Telecom lobbying is obviously not just a Canadian phenomenon. Over the holidays, a Canadian Press article expresses concerns about the nature of backroom dealings associated with the appeals processes. It is worth reading.
Former CRTC commissioner Andrew Cardozo said:
If you do your job properly as CRTC chair or member, at some point or another you will have ticked off every member of the industry, and you will have ticked off the government too. You’ve just got to go in there and do what you believe is the right thing to do, and you want to keep clear of the lobbyists.
Ian Angus was quoted in the CP article:
I would wonder whose self-respect would be so low that they’d be willing to be CRTC chair?
Why would you want to be chair of an independent regulatory body when the government has made it clear it will override you when it disagrees.
Still, policy is an important component of an evolving regulatory framework. Shouldn’t policy be set by government? So, you need a CRTC chair who agrees at least with the direction that the government wants to take with communications. For telecom, the roadmap for change has been laid out with the report of the Telecom Policy Review panel. The world of broadcasting is less clear.
Is this what is delaying the appointment of a new CRTC Chair?