Panelists tell government to reform the CRTC

GATINEAU, Que.--The CRTC came in for a drubbing at two panels Wednesday at the annual conference of the Canadian Association of Wireless Internet Service Providers (CanWISP). Many questioned the current mandate of the regulator and others criticized it for being slow and unresponsive to small competitors, such as the members of CanWISP itself. In the morning session – titled What’s Next in Telecom? – panelist Peter Menzies, a one-time commissioner of the CRTC, said it needs to get into the 21st century. It makes no sense for a telecommunications and broadcasting regulator to report to the Department of Canadian Heritage, whose focus is primarily cultural, he said. Telecom is a $70 billion industry that is growing while broadcasting rakes in $19 billion and is in decline, he stated. Ottawa telecom lawyer Christian Tacit of Tacit Law called for the commission to have a robust discipline. There should be a time limit on the length of decisions and commissioners should sign their names to rulings, he asserted. Menzies backed that idea. “It’s crazy how secret things appear,” Menzies said. “People in the industry could read the dissents .” The commission should also hold more hearings outside the national capital region, Menzies stressed. Smaller players do not have access to the official Ottawa machine, with high-priced lawyers and lobbyists arm-twisting the regulator. As a result, the CRTC only hears from BCE Inc., Rogers Communications Inc. and Telus Corp. The third panelist in the morning session was Monica Song of Dentons Canada LLP. She called on the regulator to reform its dispute regulations. All agreed that the CRTC devotes more time to broadcast issues than telecom. Moderator Janet Yale recounted a story of her time working at the commission in the 1980s. She said then-chair John Meisel would roll his eyes whenever staff brought him a telecom topic to deal with. Tacit suggested that the CRTC’s powers be split in two, with a broadcasting regulator reporting to Canadian Heritage and the Department of Industry, Science and Economic Development (ISED) holding domain over telecom and spectrum issues. “It would be less political,” Tacit opined. The volleys flung at the CRTC in the morning set the state for the afternoon panel, Independent ISP Update. The panel, moderated by The Wire Report’s Jenna Cocullo, featured representatives of lobby groups for small internet service providers. “The CRTC is in dire need of an institutional overhaul,” Geoff White of the Competitive Network Operators of Canada (CNOC) declared in his opening remarks. He too chided the regulator for having no timeline on decisions and for concentrating on broadcasting over telecommunications. He was backed on this approach by fellow panelist Jonathan Black of CanWISP and Jay Thomson of the Canadian Communication Systems Alliance (CCSA). CanWISP supported a letter CNOC sent to the CRTC asking for timelier decisions. Thomson said delays occur on the broadcasting side of the ledger as well. White delivered his harshest criticism toward the current chair of the commission. “The CRTC under Ian Scott has done irreparable harm,” he stated. He pointed to a meeting Scott held with the then-chief operating officer (now chief executive officer) of Bell Canada Mirko Bibic in a downtown Ottawa pub. It cast a pall over the commission, he said. CNOC has been lobbying Scott to recuse himself from certain decisions, “There’s an important matter of integrity here,” White said. In February, Scott defended himself before the House of Commons Industry committee, saying that he has followed all the appropriate lobbying rules. Jonathan Holmes of the Independent Telecommunications Providers Association (ITPA) said his organization used to have regular sessions with commissioners and staff but those have dried up in recent years. CanWISP’s Black said “we felt heard” under former chair Jean-Pierre Blais but nowadays there is no interaction with the CRTC. ISED is good about reaching out to small competitors, he added. Thomson said all chairs are biased. He found Blais to be biased against the big broadcasters and independent producers when Blais was chair of the commission. Bob Allen of the British Columbia Broadband Association (BCBA) joined in the criticism of the regulator and its chair. “Its mission seems to have changed, its ability to serve the public diminished,” he stated. “Mr. Scott should be reprimanded.” “We have to press control-alt-delete on the CRTC,” White said. He pointed out that the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review Panel, which Yale chaired, called on the commission to be more accountable. The government is chiefly concerned with content, he said, putting smaller competitors in trouble. When it comes time to find Scott”s replacement, it is very important to find someone who is not close to the industry, White stated. The afternoon panel was asked if there should be an industry equivalent of the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services (CCTS), which handles the consumer side. Black said CanWISP members face an “unfair battle” when dealing with the large telecoms. He called for some type of ombudsman or adjudicator. Holmes and Allen backed the notion as well. White said CNOC has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to defend against incumbent appeals of a series of CRTC decisions. Appeals can be made to the cabinet, through the courts, or through the CRTC itself, which is very expensive, he added. The big telecoms have resources the small players do not. “We’re outnumbered when it comes to lobbyists,” he stated. All of the panelists praised the government’s actions in rolling out broadband across the country. Most of them represent competitors in rural areas where service is not up to the standards of urban regions. Allen complimented ISED for being more responsive to competitors’ needs than the CRTC is. His members are trying to deliver the government’s goal of download speeds of 50 Megabits per second (Mbps) and uploads of 10 Mbps. A Monday panel at the conference concluded that those speeds should be adequate going forward. Updated to clarify Jay Thomson's remarks, and to correct Geoff White's remarks about defending appeals. They were incumbent appeals, not CNOC appeals. –Reporting by Paul Park at ppark@thewirereport.ca and editing by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca

Panelists tell government to reform the CRTC

Broadcast | March 30, 2022

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Panelists tell government to reform the CRTC

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