Senators criticize makeup of comms acts review expert panel

OTTAWA — Two senators on the Senate transport and communications committee raised concerns to federal bureaucrats testifying Wednesday night that the Liberal government's expert panel tapped to review the country's communications laws isn't diverse enough in its makeup. Liberal Sen. Terry Mercer, a senator representing Nova Scotia in the upper chamber, said he’s concerned there are "no Atlantic Canadians” on the panel, nor any average consumers. “I do want to get on the record, though, that the review panel’s significant,” he said. “There are no Atlantic Canadians on there that I can identify, there are no consumers -- and I don’t mean large scale consumers, I mean Joe or Mary consumers who would have an opinion.” Officials from the departments of Heritage and Innovation, Science and Economic Development defended that the panelists were chosen because they are experts in their fields. The seven-member panel includes lawyers and law professors, some with decades of experience in the sector, and one member, Marina Pavlovic, whose work focuses on consumer issues. Thomas Owen Ripley, director general of Heritage Canada's broadcasting and digital communications branch, said the government tried to select a "diverse range of folks" by finding experts in both broadcast and telecommunications. “Effort was really made to identify individuals with an expertise both on the broadcasting side as well as on the telecom side because this is indeed a complex area. And so the thinking is you do need folks with a degree of expertise, at the end of the day, who can come back with solid recommendations to government in terms of how to actually implement some of those legislative recommendations.” Conservative Sen. David Tkachuk, who represents Saskatchewan, had also raised regional representation as an issue, saying none of the experts are from the prairies. “No maritimers, no prairie people,” he said. “So it’s just the University of Victoria who used to live here and everybody else is from Toronto/Montreal, is that the way it is or am I overstating that a little?” he asked. One of the panel members, Hank Intven, is currently an adjunct professor at the University of Victoria, though prior to that he worked at the CRTC and at McCarthy Tétrault LLP’s Toronto office, according to his biography on the university’s website. The other six members are based in or work for organizations in Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal. Later on in the meeting, Tkachuk suggested the panel’s report will have little effect on the industry. "This looks like a panel that you’ve got of very -- I hate to use the word -- conservative, old school– there's no new thinkers on there, that’s for sure," he said. “These guys are not going to do anything to change what’s happening in broadcasting today. Only the marketplace will do that.” That criticism echoed comments made by former CRTC commissioner Tim Denton when the panel was announced, who described it as made up of “old defenders of the old religion.” The Senate committee has been doing its own review of Canada’s communications laws, independent of the federal government's panel. The government’s review was announced in budget 2017 and kicked off its consultations last month. The review panel’s report on its consultations is due in the spring, with final recommendations expected by Jan. 31, 2020. — With reporting by Kyle Duggan at kduggan@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

Senators criticize makeup of comms acts review expert panel

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Senators criticize makeup of comms acts review expert panel

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