OTTAWA – With an election call to come this morning from the Governor General, Canada’s broadcast, cable and telecom industries get a legislative time out… again… from the feds.
Any hope for copyright reform is dashed, once more. This was the fourth time the industry had lobbied heavily for changes to the Radiocommunications Act to make it tougher on signal thieves and again, the government couldn’t – or wouldn’t – do it. Last time Parliament dissolved, in 2004, the copyright reform bill went before parliament as Bill C-2, the very first one to face lawmakers. Alas, even that didn’t help.
Bill C-73, which had to do with new lawful access rules for police access to telephony systems for wire-tapping also died on the order paper on Monday.
However, other items, such as Industry Canada’s Telecom Policy Review and the incumbent telcos’ appeal to cabinet of the CRTC’s VOIP decision don’t disappear. There just might be new ministers to decide those is all. The CRTC is expected to announce its radio review in the coming weeks as well, regardless of the election.
However, Do Not Call legislation for telcos and telemarketers, was passed on Friday.
TV production funding commitments, the second stage of implementation of the Lincoln Report, Industry Canada’s additional distant broadband funding, “a lot of things won’t get done,” The Canadian Association of Broadcaster’s senior vice-president of public affairs Sandra Graham told www.cartt.ca on Monday.
“The last time Parliament ‘worked’,” said Graham, “was really in June of 2003. Just think of the technological advances in that time. It does not wait for policy decisions.
“A lot of things won’t get done now… and we need to be getting down to business rather than politics.”
