Former CRTC commissioners criticize Harnessing Change report

TORONTO — The idea of cross-subsidization of industries did not find many open arms on the final day of the ISP Summit on Wednesday, as former CRTC commissioners spoke in favour of maintaining the line between the role of broadcasting and telecommunications. “If the governments of the day want to do cultural funding for programming, I think they should separate that and do it differently, because I think it adds an unnecessary burden on the system and it confuses the issues,” Peter Menzies, a former CRTC commissioner, said as a panelist on Wednesday. The panel, which was the first of two on the final day of the conference, consisted of two other former commissioners— - Candice Molnar, whose nine-year term ended last year, and Timothy Denton, who was a commissioner from 2008 to 2013. It follows a CRTC report earlier this year that recommended the government consider involving internet service providers to help fund Canadian content. “It’s nonsense,” Menzies said, “applying a one per cent levy or tax to subsidize culture — that’s just crazy; it’s this business of trying to make the 21st century fit into the 20th century.” To rectify this, the commissioners said that there should be a separate regulator for broadcast and telecom, which isn’t a new proposal. The recommendation comes at an apt time, too, as the government is in the midst of a review of legislations governing communications laws. “The internet is much larger than the broadcasting application that rides on it,” said Molnar, a former employee of Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corp. “From a regulatory perspective, there’s too much time spent worrying about this broadcasting application and not enough time on all the other elements that are important to internet and the regulatory elements. We should be looking more at privacy, be more focused on security.” Molnar noted that the CRTC was initially created to deal with broadcasting issues. However, since then, there haven’t been “effective internet champions in Canada” to ensure that “there is full access for all.” “Unfortunately, people involved in it are more focused on the broadcasting,” she said. One of the things Denton said his Internet Society, where he is Canada chapter chairman, would like to see in any telecom legislation is an “increased capacity of the chairman or the commission to consult” with different government agencies, such as the Competition Bureau and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, to “more effectively involve them in some of the decisions which may fall to the CRTC to make, but which are really beyond the competence of anyone in telecom to answer.” It's something the privacy commissioner has also asked for. The second panel later Wednesday did not feature much deviation from the first on the issue. Some of its members have already been vocal regarding their concerns about getting internet involved in funding Canadian content. Christian Tacit, a lawyer for the Canadian Network Operators Consortium (CNOC) said there needs to be a separation of broadcast and telecommunications, and the latter should not be funding the former. He also argued that amendments to the policy directives could address some issues faster than legislative changes would. Despite these criticisms, CRTC chairman Ian Scott has said that the money going from internet revenues to the content system is not new, and therefore it doesn’t represent a tax. But some have argued that that is only the case if the consumer has both internet and cable TV, so costs are offset by one or the other. Both University of Ottawa law professor Michael Geist and Cogeco Inc.’s Leonard Eichel said they also don’t favour an ISP “tax.” Neither does the current Liberal government, which rejected the idea in the past. CORRECTION: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Candice Molnar is still employed at SaskTel. She has not worked at the telecom since 2007. — With reporting by Ahmad Hathout at ahathout@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

Former CRTC commissioners criticize Harnessing Change report

Broadcast | November 7, 2018

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Former CRTC commissioners criticize Harnessing Change report

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