The CRTC has decided to hold a public hearing to examine the ownership structure of Globalive as part of its process to approve the test of Canadian ownership and control.
The Commission has set aside 2 days for the review: September 23 and 24.
The Commission considers that Globalive’s corporate structure meets the criteria for a Type 4 review. Specifically, the Commission considers that given the complexity of Globalive’s corporate structure and financing arrangements, the determination with respect to its compliance with section 16 of the Act would contain valuable precedents concerning the Commission’s understanding of eligibility under that section. Moreover, the Commission considers the evidentiary record would be improved by third-party submissions and that the appearance of third parties will assist the Commission in its completion and examination of the evidentiary record.
The operative section of the Telecom Act will be the test of Canadian control of the company, found in Section 16(3):
a corporation is Canadian-owned and controlled if
- not less than eighty per cent of the members of the board of directors of the corporation are individual Canadians;
- Canadians beneficially own, directly or indirectly, in the aggregate and otherwise than by way of security only, not less than eighty per cent of the corporation’s voting shares issued and outstanding; and
- the corporation is not otherwise controlled by persons that are not Canadians.
Although a company may structure itself in a manner that conforms to the first parts, the CRTC will likely focus on “otherwise controlled.”
This makes for an interesting situation: companies have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to purchase wireless licenses and their ownership has been reviewed and approved by Industry Canada using the same test and the licenses have been issued. Still, the CRTC, in a public and transparent process, could require significant changes to the corporate structure in order to ensure conformance.
The duplication of review processes is one of the reasons why Recommendations 5-10 and 5-11 from the Telecom Policy Review panel sought changes to the way spectrum is managed and regulated in Canada. The report has languished on the shelf for more than 3 years now.
Is it time for government to act?
Update [July 21, 5:40 pm]
The CRTC has issued an erratum on its Globalive review notice. The initial notice indicated that a decision would be issued within 120 days of the conclusion of the hearings. The erratum indicates that the decision will be out within 30 days.
In practice, ownership reviews are usually issued even faster.
If we look at the experience in the BCE ownership review, the CRTC indicated areas of discomfort and suggested that the company could examine an alternative structure that would cause less regulatory angst over the evening break.
The opportunity to allow the company to review alternate control structures may be a reason that the CRTC has allocated 2 days for the review.