FRPC report calls for greater transparency, accountability from CRTC

The CRTC is falling short of the government’s transparency principles, according to a report from the Forum for Research and Policy in Communications (FRPC), which found the independent regulator’s decision-making processes are "secretive and slow.” The 171-page report, published Aug. 7, evaluates the CRTC’s role and performance since its creation in 1968 against objectives set out in the Government of Canada’s Trust and Transparency Strategy — established by the Treasury Board in 2024 — for a whole-of-government commitment to transparency, accountability, and public participation. While neither the CRTC, as an independent tribunal, nor the Treasury Board have clarified to The Wire Report whether the CRTC is required to follow the strategy, the CRTC said in an email that it “aligns” itself with that strategy and its “core principles.” But the FRPC concluded that there are “serious concerns” that the CRTC is not adequately meeting those principles and issued a list of recommendations that it says the commission should implement. While she was putting together the report, what stood out the most to FRPC executive director Monica Auer was “the absence of data that enables transparency” in the first place, she said in an interview with The Wire Report. She emphasized the importance of data, stating that without evidence, observations made by the CRTC are merely opinions. Key findings of the report include a decline in public hearings and an increase in private meetings with lobbyists, as well as increased use of “letter decisions” for administrative applications — which are not publicly released — and “non-appearing” sessions attended only by commission staff. The report also argues there is a lack of “any published objective evidence” detailing the CRTC’s implementation of Parliament’s broadcasting and telecom policies, such as comprehensive long-term data on Canadian content creation, the hours and types of programming broadcast by radio and TV stations, service affordability measures based on income, and detailed broadcast employment figures. While some of the data cited in the report was sourced from the CRTC’s records, including its annual reports, departmental results reports, and departmental plans, the FRPC also used data obtained through access-to-information requests and other government departments. Through lobbying data gathered from the Commissioner of Lobbying’s website, for instance, the FRPC found that from 2015 to 2024 the CRTC held an average of 45 private meetings per year with lobbyists concerning broadcasting issues. The most in that time frame occurred in 2023, with 91 meetings taking place that year. From 1968 to 2004, the CRTC held 874 public hearings, the FRPC notes, averaging 23 per year. In 2005, the CRTC began holding “non-appearing” hearings, which went on to outnumber appearing hearings in 2015. According to the FRPC’s findings, from 2022 to 2024 the CRTC held six appearing hearings while conducting 17 non-appearing hearings. The FRPC contends that much of the data published by the CRTC is insufficient, incomplete, often unreliable, and poorly accessible, hindering public understanding and independent analysis. Among others, one area where Auer argues more transparent data is needed is the CRTC’s measure of timeliness, she said, adding that there is “no data presented from the perspective of applicants,” who are at times left waiting on a CRTC decision for a longer period than desired while trying to maintain business operations. “The issue with timeliness is not to do with how fast the commission decides to move, but how long it takes an applicant to get that final decision from the commission,” she said. “We all agree that broadcasting and telecom are serious businesses with a lot at stake — so timeliness matters — and yet, why are the CRTC’s indicators of how processing applications based on when they decide to deal with it? Because that leaves applications sitting for months.” Beyond applications that lay waiting on the docket, Auer also highlighted the related issue of some applications “that just never get to the public record at all.” Another finding of the report is a decline in the CRTC’s efficiency, evidenced by a decrease in the amount of decisions the commission makes despite increases in its staffing levels and expenditures. In the CRTC’s first 20 years — from 1969 to 1988 — with an average staff of 380, it issued almost 30,982 decisions (approximately 81 per staffer). However, during its most recent 20 years — from 2005 to 2024 — with an average staff of 460, it issued only 12,280 decisions (about 27 per staffer). The CRTC's 2025-26 departmental plan forecasts a staff of 717, a 56 per cent increase over the 2005-2024 average. Auer, who worked at the CRTC in the 1980s, acknowledged that the amount of decisions issued does not necessarily reflect their scope or precision, but she contended that earlier decisions used to provide a better understanding of individual broadcasters’ activities, with details such as the amount of newscasting hours or reporting staff they had. She contrasted this with the current trend of what she called “postcard renewals,” particularly for many radio stations, where the CRTC simply confirms a licence renewal without providing evidence of an in-depth review. These reviews of broadcasters and telecom companies by the CRTC are diminished due to the delegation of complaints processing to organizations like the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) and the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services (CCTS), said Auer. “Until the 1990s, the commission was handling thousands of complaints a year. Those complaints, if they were about an individual broadcaster, would be put on the broadcaster's files, and so then, when they got to a renewal, sometimes they would look at it and say, ‘Well heck, we’ve gotten 25 complaints about this specific program, we should at least ask a question about it to see if the licensee has a response that explains what's happened,’” she stated. Since then, however, complaints that go to bodies such as the CBSC or CCTS “do not make it back to the CRTC’s files,” Auer said. She argues this creates a “disconnect between how often people are complaining about individual undertakings” and the scrutiny they get from the CRTC, especially during the licence renewal process. Auer pointed to the CRTC’s regulatory plan to modernize Canada’s broadcasting framework, which lays out the commission’s implementation of the Online Streaming Act, as another shortcoming in transparency and accountability. The plan was first published in May 2023 and, although the CRTC once publicly announced its revision in May 2024, the plan has actually been modified at least 33 other times without any public notice, according to Auer’s review of snapshots gathered by the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. She noted changes including the deferral and removal of some expected consultations. “They're entitled to change their plans, plans change,” said Auer. “But this is a plan issued to give the entire industry certainty. So, is it not a matter of concern that the plan changes without any notice, and importantly, without any reasons?” “Nobody's saying the commission bears a duty to explain every single internal decision, but if you're going to go through the trouble of helping people by setting out a plan, perhaps it might be useful to indicate when the plan changes,” she continued. “This doesn't help create certainty, it creates uncertainty.” The FRPC links these operational shortcomings to the CRTC's ability to achieve parliamentary objectives. It indicates that private television spending on Canadian programs has remained effectively flat for the last three decades, according to CRTC financial summaries and data from Statistics Canada; and there has been a 20 per cent decline in the number of hours of certified Canadian programming since 2008, according to the FRPC’s analysis of the CRTC’s own list. CRTC statistical and financial summaries also showed that broadcast employment decreased by 28.4 per cent from 2013 to 2023, and the average staff per commercial radio station fell by 62.5 per cent between 1983 and 2023, states the FRPC. “What we need to know is how well Parliament's objectives and policies are being met,” said Auer, “and we need to know it on a regular basis. Because, if they're being met, fantastic. If they're not, how do we fix it?" The FRPC is calling for the CRTC to take “quick, corrective action” by changing its practices and procedures, and proposes 14 “low- or no-cost” recommendations that Auer says the CRTC could implement itself. The recommendations include measures to enhance transparency in decision-making, such as publishing meeting minutes and signed decisions, improving the timeliness of decisions, and making alternative dispute resolution services more efficient. Accountability recommendations largely echo those for transparency, focusing on timely statistical updates. To improve public participation, the FRPC suggests enabling parties to sign up for proceeding updates, holding annual meetings to discuss the industry’s data-collection needs, and inviting comments on how the CRTC measures its performance against parliamentary policies. Auer said that the FRPC provided a copy of its report to the CRTC and Chairperson Vicky Eatrides expressed interest in meeting to discuss. “The CRTC takes transparency, accountability and public participation very seriously,” said the commission in a statement to The Wire Report, noting that it is studying the FRPC’s report and has “several initiatives already underway” that “address many of the report’s recommendations.” “For example, we have taken a number of actions to strengthen engagement, including the creation of an Indigenous Relations Team, a review of how the CRTC engages with official language minority communities, and a public consultation to make it easier for people to participate in CRTC proceedings. The CRTC is also working with key partners on reforming the Communications Market Report (CMR) and is improving the availability of data on Open Data.” phalentm@thewirereport.ca

FRPC report calls for greater transparency, accountability from CRTC

Regulatory |
By Phalen Tynes-MacDonald
| August 22, 2025

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

FRPC report calls for greater transparency, accountability from CRTC

Regulatory | By Phalen Tynes-MacDonald | August 22, 2025

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

FREE TRIAL

SUBSCRIBE

Related Stories

Deaf-blind advocacy groups want CRTC review of costs decision

Bell and Rogers fighting over TPIA disconnection charges

Telecoms push back on CRTC’s proposed botnet blocking expansion

CRTC considering raising telecom contribution threshold

Reuse & Permissions

Inside The Wire Report

Information

Hill Times Publishing

Get in Touch With Us

Regulatory |
By Phalen Tynes-MacDonald
| August 22, 2025