CRTC to help build ‘informed and empowered’ base of consumers, Blais says

OTTAWA—The CRTC will inform the public about their telecommunications options in an effort to build an “informed and empowered” constituency of consumers, new CRTC chair Jean-Pierre Blais said. “I firmly believe that a well-functioning communications system requires a number of service providers that are able to compete fairly,” Blais, appointed head of the CRTC in June, told the House of Commons heritage committee Thursday. “But a healthy marketplace also requires an informed and empowered consumer. To this end, over the coming months, we intend to proactively provide information and useful considerations to Canadians to help them make informed choices in an increasingly competitive and complex communication environment," he said. Blais pointed to the creation of a chief consumer officer within the CRTC as one step the commission has taken under his leadership to focus on consumer interests. He said the move will ensure that consumers' interests are “at the heart” of the commission’s decision-making, research and outreach processes. He said Barbara Motzney, who assumed the role of chief consumer officer on Oct. 1, will be tasked with applying a “consumer lens” to all of the commission’s activities and ensuring that the CRTC's website and outreach activities include a "preoccupation" with identifying Canadians as consumers of the services the commission regulates. “So it’s very much applying, across a holistic and probably in a matrix way, the consumer lens in everything we do, formally,” he said. “It’s not that we weren’t doing it before, but I want to make sure it’s systematic.” The CRTC has dealt with public criticism that it has not stood up for consumers in some of its key decisions, such as those on wholesale usage-based billing, Globalive Wireless Management Corp.'s denied market entry as a wireless carrier, or a value for signal policy for broadcasters. Industry insiders speculated in August that the appointment of a chief consumer officer as Blais’ first official act as commissioner was an indication that he would attempt to foster a more consumer-oriented commission. Blais told committee members he wants to build Canadians’ trust in the commission, and that the CRTC will work to ensure consumers’ relationships with service providers are more clearly defined. “A consumer decides to buy a cellphone package. What are their rights or obligations under the contract?” he asked. “The CRTC’s not there to hold consumers’ hands, but I do think we have a role to give them tools, whether it’s information through a better and less dense website, or through standards that we require a cellphone company, for instance, to have a bit more clarity in their contractual relationships with cellphone subscribers.” Blais said the commission intends to make its public hearings more accessible to consumers. He pointed to the move to offer less formal evening sessions during the upcoming licence renewal hearing for CBC/Radio-Canada as an effort to encourage more public participation. He said the commission will issue its decision on BCE Inc.’s $3.38 billion bid to acquire Astral Media Inc., which was the subject of a weeklong commission hearing last month, “as expeditiously as possible” and repeated that the CRTC has “all options” available to it during the decision-making process. “To be clear, all options are available to us. It is possible for the commission to approve the transaction as submitted. It’s also possible for us to say no in its entirety,” he said. “And in between those two bookmarks, there’s a variety of options.” Blais said he would not repeat the call of his predecessor, Konrad von Finckenstein, to merge the telecom and broadcasting acts that give the CRTC its regulatory powers. He said the two acts are “well-crafted documents” that have allowed the commission’s decision-making process “to evolve over time.” It is his job to lead the CRTC under its current mandate unless the government decides to change it, he said. Asked by Conservative MP Terence Young whether the CRTC will take action to combat cellphone theft in Canada, Blais said the commission will work with carriers and other industry players to develop ways to reduce theft. “We don’t want to regulate it. We just think that this is the social responsibilities of certain companies that are in the marketplace and they should just do the right thing and make sure that this doesn’t become an object of bullying and theft, which is on the rise,” he said. nkyonka@thewirereport.ca

CRTC to help build ‘informed and empowered’ base of consumers, Blais says

Broadcast | October 4, 2012

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

FREE TRIAL

SUBSCRIBE

Inside The Wire Report

Information

Hill Times Publishing

Get in Touch With Us

CRTC to help build ‘informed and empowered’ base of consumers, Blais says

Broadcast | October 4, 2012

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

FREE TRIAL

SUBSCRIBE

Related Stories

CRTC postpones broadcast hearings following snap election call

Broadcasters differ on usefulness of CRTC’s undue preference, standstill rules

‘Outdated’ regulatory tools unsuitable for online environment, streamers tell CRTC

CRTC dismisses WildBrain undue preference complaint against Bell; Rogers facing new complaint

Reuse & Permissions

Inside The Wire Report

Information

Hill Times Publishing

Get in Touch With Us