CRTC re-org will make application processes faster and easier: Morin

For the second time in three years, advances in technology have pushed the CRTC to realign its organizational structure to keep up with the times. The commission’s secretary general, Robert Morin, says the changes include a revamped policy development and research (PDR) sector with more functions that are common to both telecom and broadcast. The move is expected to make the regulator nimble and markedly different from a similar restructuring in 2005.For instance, the PDR will now be in charge of arbitration and hearings, functions formerly falling under the broadcasting and telecom sectors. The PDR has also been given clout to function as a strategic thinking pool with emphasis on industry analysis and strategic planning to track future changes in technology.“At the speed with which the industry and technology moves now, you just can’t sit still for very long,” Morin told Tech Media Reports. “In other words, we must not be surprised at what might come in the future.”Morin says the think-tank approach to running the PDR removes bottlenecks which should make public procedures and application processes faster and easier. The realigned structure, announced July 15, will not involve any job losses, nor any change in the heads of the five sectors at the CRTC: PDR, telecom, broadcasting, strategic communication, legal, secretary general and corporate services. Instead, employees have been moved around internally.The realignment is headed by CRTC chair Konrad von Finkenstein, assisted by vice chairs Len Katz, and Michel Arpin, and Morin.Since its establishment in 1976, the CRTC has reorganized its structure several times, but nothing so ambitious as the current realignment, says Hank Intven, partner at the law firm McCarthy Tétrault. Intven, a lawyer with more than 20 years of experience in the telecommunications industry, says the inclusion of research and analysis in the PDR sector makes it function more like a think-tank and is likely to yield positive dividends in the future.The inclusion of areas that are common to telecom and broadcast under one sector will also allow the CRTC to react more flexibly in response to the transformation occurring in the sectors, and how consumers are responding to this transformation, says Mark Goldberg, a telecom industry consultant.“One of the things that I really liked about it, is the indication that the CRTC is willing to adapt,” he says.Though the realignment comes three years after a restructuring at the commission, Goldberg says the current changes may have been in effect longer than the organizational structure announced in mid-July. Among other things, the realignment allows the CRTC to look at challenges from a broader perspective but Goldberg says this will not necessarily make it more efficient.“But it would likely be more effective,” he says, adding that convergence has been a key factor driving the realignment.In the future, the PDR might examine the issue of a merged Broadcasting Act and Telecommunications Act but the last word will rest with the federal government, says Morin, adding that the CRTC will have to do its own homework before approaching the government. “For instance, people keep saying regulate the Internet. Well, you don’t regulate the Internet. The only thing that we are concerned about at the CRTC in terms of the Internet is how it affects broadcasting. So we look at the Internet within the framework of broadcast,” he says.Further realignments will be made as the need demands but not necessarily on a three-year cycle, says Morin.Goldberg calls the realignment the beginning of an ever changing organizational structure, which just mirrors the way the industry is changing.“It is a great sign that the CRTC is willing to adapt and not be stuck in a historical model,” he says.

CRTC re-org will make application processes faster and easier: Morin

News | 07/29/2008 7:23 pm EDT

To keep reading, get a free trial.

Already a Subscriber?

Reuse & Permissions

Inside The Wire Report

Information

Hill Times Publishing

Get in Touch With Us