Policy Review Poses 106 Questions

"What’s on your mind?" That’s the essence of the Consultation Paper submitted by the Telecommunications Policy Review Panel June 6 (www.telecomreview.ca). The paper asks interested parties to make submissions on 105 topics, touching every facet of the industry touched by government policy. An extra, 106th question asks comment on any other issue that the panel failed to mention. The panel says it is inviting comment on "as wide a range of issues as possible" because its terms of reference are broad and it wishes not to prematurely eliminate areas of concern. In essence, it’s asked us to take part in compiling a sort of "wiki," a collaborative encyclopedia of telecom policy in Canada. But we must spring to our keyboards and type like the wind. The deadline for first round submissions is August 15—only a few weeks out. Reply comments must be in by September 15, and the panel is to submit its completed report by the end of the year. User ConcernsIncluded among the 106 questions are the disputed issues that led Bell Canada and some others to lobby so hard for the review: the CRTC’s mandate, its procedures, and the scope of its regulation of the telecom marketplace. As the Coalition for Competitive Communications (www.telecomcoalition.ca) has pointed out, these issues touch the vital interests of corporate users, and it plans to make an extensive submission. But business users are affected by many other mentioned issues, including building access; interconnection rules; the numbering system; and measures to promote Information and Communications Technology investment (that old chestnut, foreign investment restrictions, turns up again here). And the questions posed under the heading, "Canada’s Connectivity Agenda," such as whether to include broadband connectivity in the regulatory definition of universal service, will shape the social environment within which business and government operate. Panel members Hank Intven, Gerri Sinclair and André Tremblay have been handed a difficult assignment, and it is far from clear that this exercise will spark significant policy changes. But their call for submissions is creative and useful—good reason for some of us to take our laptops to the cottage this summer.

Policy Review Poses 106 Questions

News | June 28, 2005

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