There is something of a personal relationship that develops with organizations you have had a share in creating. I have always had that kind of a relationship with the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). It showed me what could be achieved by activism in politics. I was there at its birth. I do not want to see it lose all credibility.
What concerns me very much is that CRTC chair Ian Scott is being criticized for a meeting with Mirko Bibic, CEO of Bell Canada. Scott claimed the meeting was simply having a beer with an old friend. After the fact, Bibic reported the meeting as lobbying, as a matter was discussed about something current in CRTC filings. The very fact that Scott and Bibic are old friends should be grounds for disqualifying Scott for the job of CRTC chair.
But lately nobody in Ottawa seems to take the CRTC’s position seriously. I don’t know which minister of Canadian heritage made the appointments but the fact that the two vice-chairs and six commissioners of the CRTC currently are all women must be someone’s idea of a bad joke. That could not happen by accident. Maybe they are referred to as CEO Ian Scott’s harem.
But if you are looking for proper regulation of radio and television broadcasting, telecommunications and Internet services in Canada, you are hardly going to get much satisfaction from a commission run by the industry’s friend Ian Scott. And Canadians will likely never get a break on the high prices they continue to pay for television, telephone, and Internet services.
When we were pushing for an end to the old Board of Broadcast Governors (who also ran the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Radio Canada), we wanted a regulator that would represent Canadians in the increasingly complex realm of broadcasting and telecommunications. We never imagined that our politicians would come to rely on the industry itself to provide the management of the regulator. With Mr. Scott running the CRTC, we have let the fox into the hen house—in more ways than one.
-30-
Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry
Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to: