CAMBRIDGE, Ont. – The CRTC needs fining power to make sure telecom companies abide by the rules, chairman Charles Dalfen told the 2006 Telecommunications Invitational Forum on Sunday.
In a speech that was in large part an answer to the Telecom Policy Review report filed in March. Dalfen said the Commission is digesting the report, filed in March, and will soon implement many of its recommendations.
As well, "(w)e will also be striking a working group with the Competition Bureau to develop recommendations on how the Canadian telecom sector can more effectively benefit from the expertise resident in both agencies, in telecommunications proceedings where principles of competition law and policy and their application are pertinent; in the development of consistent definitions of key terms such as essential facilities; and in the development by the Bureau of guidelines on abuse of dominant power by telecommunications service providers. The specific areas of focus of the working group should be finalized in the next week or so," he outlined.
One of the TPR recommendations Dalfen is 100% behind, he said is that policy-setting should come from cabinet. "Too often, in my view, the CRTC has had to deal with issues on which successive governments had not defined clear policies, even though the Telecommunications Act gives the government the authority to issue broad policy directions to the Commission," says Dalfen.
"In the absence of such direction, and faced with requests from service providers and users for decisions, we’ve had to fill the policy vacuum."
And with all telecom markets moving towards deregulation (no matter how one feels about the recent local forbearance decision) the CRTC will need some sort of teeth to its system, if those policies are to be maintained. The TPR recommended the same thing. "After-the-fact regulation of retail rates would be less burdensome on the industry – and on the Commission – than the current practice of ex ante approval, provided, as the Panel has recommended, that meaningful penalties can be levied, where necessary, in order to encourage compliance.
Bill C-73, which died in the queue when the last election was called, called for very large fines for companies which breach the Telecommunications Act. Without the threat of fines, which some say won’t work anyway, " regulating after the fact would be toothless, and a disservice to consumers," said Dalfen.
The main points in the TPR report Dalfen says he agrees with are:
• telecommunications plays a key economic role in Canada, and the regulatory environment should allow the telecommunications industry to respond as rapidly as possible to technological and market developments; and
• telecommunications plays a key social role in Canada, and we must ensure that it enhances social well being and the inclusiveness of Canadian society;
• telecommunications policy is the principal domain of the government, not the Commission;
• regulatory practice needs to adapt to current circumstances;
• to the extent that retail rate regulation remains necessary, ex post regulation supported by appropriate penalties, should supplant ex ante regulation.
