PIAC’s outgoing, incoming executive directors discuss advocacy group’s future

The Public Interest Advocacy Centre’s new executive director credits his predecessor with inspiring him to become an “underdog champion.” PIAC’s purpose is to put legal and research efforts into advocacy for consumer interests in Canada. For years, it has appeared before regulatory bodies such as the CRTC, arguing for better service and increased affordability for the public. Its new leader is Geoff White, as now-former executive director and general counsel John Lawford transitions to the temporary job of special counsel. Lawford told The Wire Report in an interview that after 12 years at the helm of PIAC, it is time to make a change. He acknowledged that leading the non-profit is “a hard job.” “There's not a lot of love and thanks, and certainly not much money for us, and that can all be a lot. I think Geoff is strong enough to do this, and he's got the fighting spirit…,” Lawford said. “It’s a matter of handing off the baton to the next runner to keep the energy up and to try to face all these challenges.” White the ‘first choice’: Lawford Lawford said White has “always” been his first choice to take over the group. “I'm just so happy that he's taking over, because he's pretty much the only one who could walk right in and make the place work at 100 per cent from day one,” Lawford said. “It's already great energy in the office, and fast. He'll charge his own path, and I'm looking forward to hearing what he wants to do…” White said it’s an honour to be passed the torch. “This is difficult work. It's difficult work at a difficult time for consumer groups, and there are a lot of tricky issues that the companies are throwing a lot of money at. Being the underdog, or being an underdog champion, always comes with its challenges,” White said. “You're always out money-ed, outnumbered, outlobbied, and so it’s a solemn, difficult role, but somebody has to do it.” White said it was watching Lawford appear by himself before a panel of CRTC commissioners more than 10 years ago, while White was a regulatory junior with MTS Allstream, that made him realize he wanted to be “an underdog champion.” “I said to myself, ‘that’s what I want to be doing.’ So it took a while, through a variety of different mandates, but here I am,” White told The Wire Report in a separate interview about his new job with PIAC. “This was a long time coming in so many respects.” White has history with PIAC This is not White’s first time with PIAC. He worked with it as legal counsel from 2013 to 2017, before becoming director and regulatory counsel for the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-Television Services (CCTS) from early 2017 to October 2019. He also finished his mandate as an industry-elected member of its board of directors this month. White has also been a part-time professor in communications law at the University of Ottawa, followed by nearly four years spent with the Competitive Network Operators of Canada (CNOC) — an industry association representing Canadian independent internet service providers — including nearly three years as its executive director and general counsel. White stepped down from CNOC last fall. Lawford said he'll spend the next two to three months working with White in a temporary position as special counsel for PIAC as White regains a sense of PIAC’s work. “There’s no question that John leaves big shoes to fill and I’m fortunate that he’s going to be staying on as special counsel for a while to help with the transition, because he’s got a wealth of knowledge and experience and that was important to me,” White said. For now, Lawford said his immediate focus is making sure White has the support he needs to take PIAC forward, because he believes its mission is “more important than before.” After that, if PIAC wants to engage with someone who is well-versed in a particular broadcast or telecom file, “they might consider me as counsel,” Lawford said. In leaving PIAC, Lawford said his goal is also to have time for other interests, particularly taking a broader look at analyzing the state of consumer issues in Canada. He does not have any particular role lined up for January, after his period as special counsel to the group. PIAC’s future focus For his part, White said he is keeping an eye on the CRTC’s August decision ordering BCE Inc.’s Bell Canada, Bell Aliant, and Bell MTS, along with Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corp., and Telus Corp. to provide competitors wholesale access to their existing fibre networks. SaskTel is challenging that decision at the Federal Court of Appeal. “The consultation and the hearing came at a time after the wave of consolidation swept through the industry, and now I see the games beginning in terms of it being delayed and watered down,” White said about the decision. “This wholesale regime, it really has to work. It has to get rolling, and everybody has to play by the rules, and everybody has to participate, otherwise the remaining competitors will die or be acquired, and there will be no other competitors entering the market, because it just won't be a workable regime.” hdaley@thewirereport.ca

PIAC’s outgoing, incoming executive directors discuss advocacy group’s future

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By Hannah Daley
| October 7, 2024

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