CRTC’s finances are ‘fine’ for new responsibilities: Scott

MISSISSAUGA – CRTC chair Ian Scott said he does not know what the state of the CRTC’s finances will look like in future but the commission is “fine” for the moment as it prepares to take on a massive new workload with the introduction of the Online Streaming Act, known as Bill C-11, and the Online News Act, known as Bill C-18. “I think the condition right now is: it looks fine,” Scott told the Wire Report in a Monday interview. “What I'm saying is given us resources to do what we have to do right now. Does that mean that in the future, you know, that we won't need any more money or it will be less? I don't know. We won’t know until later but we have what we need right now to do the work that's in front of us.” In the April budget, the Liberal government provided the CRTC with $8.5 million funding over two years to establish its new regulatory regime for C-18. “We had to make estimates not knowing what was in the legislation. So is it enough? I can't tell you. That's what they have given us and we'll work with it,” Scott said. The CRTC will also pay for its endeavors by collecting from the fee payer, a process which needs approval from the Department of Justice. The government has received criticism for dumping the two pieces of legislation on the regulator. Critics allege that the commission is overstepping its bounds by dabbling in internet regulation and print media. Others have noted that it already has its hands full and lack of resources, pointing to the fact that it took more than a year to implement a three-digit suicide prevention hotline and issue a decision on the CBC/ Radio-Canada’s licence renewal. After the cabinet's decision to send the CBC license renewal back to the CRTC for failing to meet the objectives of the Broadcasting Act, does Scott believe the commission got the decision wrong? “The decision speaks for itself. I’m not touching that. The government’s asked us to reconsider it so we will look at it,” Scott said. Monday also marked Scott’s last appearance and keynote address at the Canadian Telecom Summit in his position as chair of the CRTC. In his address, Scott announced that the CRTC is preparing to launch a proceeding that could examine issues relating to the reporting of major outages, measures to enhance network resiliency, access to emergency services, consumer compensation, the imposition of penalties on providers and the impact of outages on accessibility services. The consultation is a response to the public safety concerns raised after both the Rogers Communications Inc. national outage and the Atlantic Canada outage caused by Hurricane Fiona. He also announced that the CRTC is preparing to launch a third call for applications to the Broadband Fund in the coming weeks. “The third call of applications will focus on areas where we feel there is particular, immediate need. This includes paying particular attention to projects that improve mobile connectivity along major roads, address transport needs and satellite transport capacity – all of which address public safety concerns,” he said. Scott ended addressing the “elephant in the room.” The CRTC’s work on wholesale high-speed access policies. Scott said that amid the government’s proposed policy direction and the developments with the slew of mergers and acquisitions, the CRTC continues to work on its current HSA framework. “We recognize the importance of these issues – for both industry and Canadians – and we are working on a path forward. It’s not for lack of effort and focus that I cannot announce something more concrete today,” he said. – Reporting by Jenna Cocullo at jcocullo@thewirereport.ca and editing by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca

CRTC’s finances are ‘fine’ for new responsibilities: Scott

News | 11/22/2022 2:20 pm EST

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