Blais evokes praise, criticism as he leaves CRTC

Now that former chairman Jean-Pierre Blais has departed the CRTC after five years at the helm, he leaves behind hundreds of decisions that have shaped the direction of Canada’s telecom and media industries, and a mixed legacy that includes accolades for his focus on broadband and consumer issues and disapproval from the cultural sector. Blais was new to telecom when he was appointed to the job five years ago, which meant the industry was watching closely for any indication about what his approach might be. They got a clear message when, in his first move as chair, Blais appointed a chief consumer officer to the CRTC and renamed the commission’s research bureau to reflect consumer priorities, to counteract the public perception that the CRTC had failed to adequately stand up for consumers. Blais continued in the same direction, and in his first major decision, rejected BCE Inc.’s initial application to acquire Astral Media Inc., stating that deal was not in the public interest. “Taking on Bell, straight up, on Astral right out of the gate was a big deal,” John Lawford, executive director of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) said in a phone interview. Of course, that focus didn’t emerge in a vacuum — the CRTC gets its policy direction from the government, and consumer affordability as a priority was set by the then-Conservative government, and specifically outlined in a letter on Blais’ first day. The Talk TV proceeding and the decision to mandate pick-and-pay followed a 2013 speech from the throne in which the government said it would require channels to unbundle. That doesn’t mean the consumer agenda wasn’t also Blais’ own — he said in 2014 that he shared a “philosophy” about consumer affordability and service issues with then-Heritage Minister James Moore, and he didn’t change tack once the Conservative government was voted out. “Overall, I think the … general tendency of the decisions and what was concentrated on was really retail and consumer-oriented,” Lawford said, citing decisions like the Wireless Code and pick-and-pay. “From that point of view, it was a really good run for consumers and their interests overall.” The focus on consumers was a 180-degree turn from previous CRTC leadership, Lawford said. “The first people he met was with us,” he noted. “And I was like ‘really? Before Bell?’” But some of Blais’ moves were “aggressive,” Lawford noted, like bringing in the Wireless Code’s effective two-year limit before all three-year contracts were up. “There was always something in the decision where you’d read it and you’d go, ‘wow, we didn’t ask for that. Ok, sure we’ll take it’ because it was like a step farther than you would have gone.” Blais didn’t “want to drag out the implementation of these consumer rights and make them be phased in over a really long period of time,” Lawford said. “It’s just that telecom’s one of those things where it’s hard to push, push, push because it’s such a massive system.” He added that “rubbed some people the wrong way.” “It’s a fine line to run between the public interest and what’s populist,” Lawford said. Like with the decision to eliminate simultaneous substitution for the Super Bowl, “on occasion, I think perhaps Blais was a little too populist… he didn’t tease out the difference between populism and public interest quite enough.” Blais was also successful in his effort to open up the commission to the public, Lawford said. At the end of his term, “there’s far more public participation and knowledge among the general public about proceedings and the fact that they both can comment and appear.” Lawford added: “I think the average person is still skeptical of the CRTC and what they do, but I think they think now they have a say if they really want to push.” Former CRTC commissioner Tim Denton said a phone interview that all of Blais’ decisions “can be analyzed from a point of view of placing Canadians' access to the Internet front and centre.” That included the view that access should be unrestricted, as seen in Blais’ decisions on net neutrality, Denton said. “I think he really was highly successful in getting the Internet to the forefront of policy consideration. And this despite the fact that neither in is there any mention of the Internet, nor was it invented at the time of either of those two statutes. But he saw the elephant in the room and prepared to act upon his realization. I think he showed real leadership in that regard,” Denton said. At the same time as Blais was focusing on consumers, he was also putting some distance between himself and industry, putting an end to practices like informal meetings and chats with industry representatives. Though Blais maintained that the consumer focus wasn’t necessarily at odds with industry, during his time in office, that relationship sometimes turned antagonistic. In a speech, he talked about “corporate executives who own luxury yachts and private helicopters” who came to the CRTC looking for subsidies. Telecoms, especially Bell, appealed a number of his decisions in front of cabinet and the courts. The three incumbents tried to challenge the implementation date of the Wireless Code in court. Bell alone was responsible for unsuccessful appeals regarding mandating wholesale access to fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) networks, and the Mobile-TV zero-rating decision, as well as court challenges of the Wholesale Code and, along with the National Football League (NFL), the Super Bowl decision. Blais also faced criticism from some for pivoting away from the 2006 policy directive for the commission to rely on market forces as much as possible. Martin Masse, senior writer and editor at the Montreal Economic Institute, said in a phone interview that “under Mr. Blais, the CRTC has gone in the exact opposite direction.” Under Blais’ predecessor, “in every decision that they made, they really emphasized to what extent the policy direction had told them to do that… then they started to kind of just pay lip service to the policy direction.” Masse said the path Blais — whom he called a “central-planning technocrat”— took increased uncertainty in the industry and had an impact “on the margins” and on some investment decisions. Blais’ perspective on Canadian content also didn’t make him many friends in the cultural sector, with a number of decisions evoking an outcry from content creators, such as last year’s changes to the certified independent production fund (CIPF) framework and a recent decision on new expenditure minimums. Lawford said that the CanCon field is a minefield, and on occasion, Blais “stepped on it.” He didn’t try to diffuse the situation before his departure — in a farewell speech that angered many, he suggested government should “get out of the cultural sector’s way.” Blais said he was “deeply concerned by the fact that some people in industry and in government continue to bang their heads against the wall and argue on the margins of traditional institutions when we’re in the midst of a sea change. For just a moment, forget Telefilm. Forget the Canada Media Fund. Forget super-screen based agencies. Forget tax credits and co-production treaties with Belgium. They’re tools of a bygone era.” That speech was greeted by a press release from the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA), which said that under Blais, “the CRTC embraced an approach that undermined Canadian storytellers instead of protecting them.” Independent consultant Kelly Lynne Ashton said in a phone interview that “this is a time for big thinking, and I think the industry’s been frustrated that instead of big thinking, we’ve gotten pettiness and comments about how the production sector are dinosaurs who just need to stop looking to government for funding and somehow magically produce their content and find a way to get it to international markets on broadband.” Overall, the cultural sector believes that Blais didn’t listen to them, and “got the impression that he wasn’t listening to the evidence being presented. He had made his mind up. And members of the industry tried to say ‘that’s not the way it works.’ Once his mind was made up, could not get him to see how he didn’t have all the facts, that he could be wrong,” Ashton said. She added Blais was unpredictable as a chairman. “You never knew what you were going to get, even after having followed a hearing… you started to expect those out-of-left-field decisions,” like adding a pilot project for literary adaptations to the Talk TV decision. “Nothing was broken with literary adaptations that needed to be fixed,” Ashton said. Blais’ leadership style within the CRTC itself also became an issue during his term, as his conflict with former commissioner Raj Shoan — who was fired from the CRTC — exposed inner workings in court. In addition to appealing his dismissal, Shoan unsuccessfully challenged Blais’ ability to name panels in court, which he said threatened the ability of commissioners to operate independently. Denton said that while he had “no bones” with Blais personally during his time as a commissioner, the chairman was not much of a team player. “He’s an authoritarian essentialist when it comes to making decisions. He basically saw no particular reason for other commissioners,” Denton said of Blais, who declined an interview for this story. “He was not a person to much trust or tolerate discussion, the basic equality that goes with discussion.” But in his farewell address to CRTC staff, Blais referred to a team effort. “I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished as a group over the past five years. I’ll look back on this period of my career fondly,” he said, according to a copy of his remarks. “Back in 2012, I set an ambitious plan for change for this organization and I can honestly say that we achieved those goals — with hard work and dedication. I hope you’re just as proud of what we’ve achieved together. It hasn’t always been easy.” Denton added it’s inevitable that the interpersonal issues being dragged through the courts will have an influence on how Blais’ legacy is assessed. “But in terms of what he did on policy, it was greatly to be praised and how he managed other people is to be condemned. But every person is bag of virtue and vice and his are particularly strongly marked. It’s a sadness. As you get older, you realize you come across people who are just sort of flawed, but great. He would have achieved greatness but for this interpersonal thing, which is a tragedy.” — With reporting by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca and reporting and editing by Charelle Evelyn at cevelyn@thewirereport.ca

Blais evokes praise, criticism as he leaves CRTC

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Blais evokes praise, criticism as he leaves CRTC

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