End of term

Just like the millions of school kids turning in their end of year projects and term papers before heading off for summer vacation, last week our elected members of parliament and our appointed senators released three reports of interest to the ICT community.

First was the Senate’s Standing Committee on Transport and Communications releasing its Plan for a Digital Canada [pdf, 2.3MB]. Of the three reports, this was the one that actually used web technologies to release its report, as contrasted with simple pdfs from its classmates. A summary of the 18 recommendations can be found here.

Parliament’s INDU committee (the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology) spent a few months examining foreign ownership issues. It called nealy 40 witnesses, collected briefs from a dozen or so groups and its report [pdf, 745KB] came out with just 2 recommendations: clarify the “control in fact” test of the Telecom Act (Section 16); and, liberalize ownership restrictions for satellites – a move that the government took 3 months earlier. Some early reports have been critical of this output from the committee.

I’ll point out that I found greater value in the appended statements from the 4 parties, perhaps providing advance insight into which way the minds are leaning. Given the current public consultation process (which should yield legislation being introduced in the fall), it is helpful to have an indication of where the political support and opposition for various alternatives will be found.

The final report was from Parliament’s Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage. It issued what it called an ‘interim report’ on “Emerging and Digital Media: Opportunities and Challenges” [pdf, 206KB]. The report covers a broad range of issues, including foreign ownership, copyright, Canadian content, net neutrality and more. It makes it clear that there is more work to be done.

Add the three reports to your summer reading list.