In the next few days, Prime Minister Harper will be naming his new cabinet to lead Canada’s 40th Parliament.
No doubt, the new Ministers will ask their senior departmental bureaucrats to identify key priorities.
How will Industry Canada respond?
As I wrote last week, the Conservatives had a number of telecom related planks in their platform, dealing with anti-spam legislation and rural broadband. There were other consumer protection initiatives and a discussion of strengthening the powers of the CRTC and the CCTS.
The Minister of Industry has responsibility for telecom policy and the Telecommunications Act, while the Minister of Canadian Heritage has responsibility for broadcasting and the Broadcast Act. There are some who are calling for a new converged Communications Act which would bring all activities regulated by the CRTC under a single umbrella.
If we are opening up the Telecom Act, what about moving forward with implementing more of the recommendations of the Telecom Policy Review Panel? Or any of our other task forces and review panels?
In the list of priorities, where does relaxation of restrictions on foreign ownership fit?
The leaders of the opposition parties said all the right things in their concession speeches Tuesday evening. But will a sufficient spirit of bi-partisanship in the House emerge to enable effective progress in this minority government?