Industry leaders guide Senate committee through maze of communications issues

The inaugural meeting of a Senate review into the future of Canada's communications industry appears to have attracted far more interest from industry than from the committee itself. Only two members of the five-member Senate Subcommittee on Communications - chair Marie-P Poulin (Lib) and Sheila Finestone (Lib) - stayed for the duration of the first proceeding. The sub-committee's vice-chair, Mira Spivak (P.C.), made a brief appearance and a few other senators drifted in and out. Senate rules allow any member of the upper chamber to sit in on committee meetings and ask questions. After the meeting, Finestone said, "I'm glad someone else realized that the turnout was so bad. I felt very alone there, asking all the questions." The sub-committee is holding hearings over the coming months into such far-reaching issues as e-commerce, Internet security, Canadian content and the roles of the CRTC, Competition Bureau and Copyright Board. The subcommittee's members are: Poulin, a former CBC executive; Finestone, former secretary of state for the status of women; Spivak; Janis Johnson (P.C); and Liberal political strategist Michael Kirby. The subcommittee has been assigned a formidable task: to get a handle on the convergence of media and its impact on competition and Canadian consumers. While it has no power to draft or sponsor legislation, its report - expected out in three parts between now and mid-2001 - could influence government policy. Faced with even the possibility of such fundamental change, the May 15 hearing attracted some familiar faces, including Industry Canada's Richard Simpson (director general, Electronic Commerce Branch) and Doug Hull (director general, Information Highway Applications Branch). Fred Gault of Statistics Canada (director of Science, Innovation and Electronic Information Division) also attended the May 15 hearing, as did Andrew Bjerring, president/CEO of CANARIE Inc. In what has become a familiar speech for Industry Canada officials, its representatives at the hearing explained how plummeting access costs for telecommunications - combined with a high-profile ‘Connectedness' agenda - have propelled Canada ahead of other developed countries in the race to get online. They boasted that the government itself is on track to move all of its programs online by 2004. However, groups like the Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC) warned in their remarks to the subcommittee that it will be "difficult, if not impossible to achieve the target". The industry association also wants the government to greatly accelerate its target date. The roster from industry included Peter Barnes, president/CEO of the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association; Janet Yale, president/CEO of the Canadian Cable Television Association; and from ITAC, Linda Oliver, executive director government relations, and Lynda Leonard, VP communications. Oliver and Leonard pressed the committee to support the CRTC's decision to not regulate the Internet. But two of the three Senators who stayed through the whole meeting appeared to be leaning toward some form of regulation of the web. Finestone, who still has clout among the House of Common's Liberal women's caucus and with the Prime Minister's Office, asked how government could stop pedophiles and pornographers from using the Internet. ITAC noted that laws already exist to protect society against pornography, fraud, and crime. Industry insiders concede the Senate subcommittee is limited both in its power and its understanding of the nuts and bolts of how competition is evolving in the various communications sectors. Still, Yale says she believes its recommendations may influence the federal government to modernize its approach to broadcasting regulation. "At this point, the people who are appearing before the committee are giving it perspective of where the parties are coming from. This part sets the stage for parts two and three, where they get into the real meat of the issues," Yale told CCR.

Industry leaders guide Senate committee through maze of communications issues

News | 05/25/2000 4:00 am EDT

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