Lower gov’t pay makes it hard to draw expertise to CRTC: Dalfen
CRTC chair Charles Dalfen said it is hard to entice the appropriate experts to work for the commission since government pay scales are often lower than those in the private sector. He noted that there are people of experience who would only get paid a fifth of what they make on Bay Street if they were to take on the job as financial analyst at the CRTC. "The commission has struck a barrier, and we’re working on this as well. …It’s a matter of getting the right levels of staff and the right expertise to match the huge amount of talent that is out there in the private sector that we face," he said to a room full of delegates at the Canadian chapter of the International Institute of Communications conference on December 2. Later he told Canadian Communications Reports, "We’re always looking for talent and some of the government pay scales don’t allow you to bring in that expertise. We’ll see what we can do with the procedures and go a little further." His Bay Street comments were in response to a question about whether it made sense to cut the number of commissioners at the CRTC as more of the decision making would fall to commission staff, which would have to be expanded to take on the extra workload. "Although I have never mentioned a smaller commission, for the record, I agree with the thrust (of the question) just the same," he noted. "More work will be delegated to staff (if the size of the CRTC is reduced)." He noted it was something that was already in play at the CRTC with a lot of dispute resolution work falling to staff, but not matters on the compliance side.

Unlock all the Canadian telecom, broadcasting and digital media news you need.

Take a free trial or subscribe to The Wire Report now.