WHEN JUSTIN TRUDEAU is sworn in as Prime Minister his Liberal party will face a number of key telecommunications issues in the next 12 months.
These include meeting the challenge of an increasingly digital world, innovation, privacy regulations, wireless competition, dealing with the rural-urban broadband divide and increasing access to our digital future with poor Canadians.
One of the most obvious problems with trying to read how the new government might deal with these issues is that telecom and broadcast policies didn't figure largely in the leaders' debates or their major speeches.
Still, the Liberal platform makes a few promises:
- Repeal of "problematic elements" of the Anti-terrorism Act (C-51). That includes making sure "all Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) warrants will respect the Charter of Rights.
Carriers were pleased with the Supreme Court of Canada ruling last year that law enforcement and intelligence agencies need warrants to get subscriber data and don’t want to see that rolled back.
- Reverse cuts to CBC's budget, and add $150 million in new annual funding for the public broadcaster. Also will "ensure merit-based and independent appointments" to its board;"
- Unspecified increases in funding for culture and creative industries, including $25 million a year for Telefilm Canada and the National Film Board;
- Appoint an Advertising Commissioner to help the Auditor General oversee government ads and ensure they are non-partisan and represent "a legitimate public service announcement."
On the other hand, the platform also doesn't deal with the just-negotiated Trans Pacific Partnership, in particular unconfirmed leaked portions that suggest carriers will have to enforce complaints – even those not backed by a court order – by copyright holders that their works (music, videos, photos, documents) have been infringed upon.
Currently carriers only have to give customers notice that a complaint has been made. The current federal government hasn’t released the full text of the deal and side agreements.
Also, the Liberal platform says nothing about the what its view of the regulations for the new Digital Privacy Act (also known as S-4) should look like. The act, which obliges Canadian organizations to notify customers and partners about data breaches, was passed months ago but doesn’t come into effect until the regulations are proclaimed by the Cabinet.
One of Trudeau's first priorities is to appoint a new Industry Minister, and whomever that is and what they say and do in the early days will be a sign of which way the new government might go on these and the following issues identified by several experts:
- Wireless competition: A key initiative by the previous government, which in 2008 set aside spectrum for the AWS auction that led to the creation of Wind Mobile, Mobilicity, Public Mobile, and the cellular divisions of cablecos Videotron and Eastlink. Spectrum was also set aside for new entrants in last year's 700 MHz auction.
So what's the Liberal policy on wireless? The Harper government loudly trumpeted its support for more wireless competition, engaging in a verbal slugging match with big Canadian carriers when Verizon appeared interested in buying Wind Mobile, and refusing to allow Telus to buy financially struggling Mobilicity.
Ultimately, though Rogers got Mobilicity and the Conservatives appeared resigned that a fourth national wireless carrier is a dream.
"Are they going to advocate or continue to try and incent the creation of a fourth (national) carrier," asks Ken Engelhart, formerly Rogers Communications' senior vice-president of regulatory affairs and now a Toronto-based telecommunications lawyer.
Similarly, Iain Grant, managing director of the SeaBoard Group wonders if "in a Trudeau government would the voices of Bell, Telus and Rogers echo more strongly in the halls than they have in the last eight years?"
One sign to look for: How the Liberals will structure the impending 600 MHz spectrum auction – with some sort of caps to help small or new entrants, or unlimited bidding? A date hasn’t been set yet, but it is expected that the government will continue to ask the private sector for ideas before setting the structure.
- A comprehensive Telecom/broadcasting review: It's long overdue, says industry consultant Mark Goldberg (among many others). The 2007 review of government telecommunications policy by Gerri Sinclair, Hank Intven and André Tremblay urged it be looked at again in five years (that is, in 2012).
Goldberg agrees, but this time a should include broadcasting. A number of experts have been saying that in the digital era it doesn't make sense to have separate Telecommunications and Broadcasting Acts.
A broadcasting review would also look at the rules encouraging Canadian content. Engelhart notes that at a time when more Canadians access content over the unrestricted Internet, how can the government and the CRTC continue to support Canadian creators?
- Rural broadband: The outgoing government has given several hundred million dollars to small rural providers so they can increase or expand broadband coverage, although often that meant only getting speeds up to 5Mbps. What will the Liberals do?
Some major carriers think expanding their LTE networks rather than boosting Internet speeds over cable or copper or fibre lines will suffice in rural areas. Grant isn’t one of them.
Last weekend he was in the Peterborough, Ont. area, watching the Toronto Blue Jays – Kansas City Royals streamed over LTE. The picture was good until the end of the first inning. "Those who tout LTE as the answer for non-urban broadband, it isn’t really made for it.” Instead the new government should lift the moratorium on rural remote broadband licences, he said.
- Anti-spam (CASL) and Do Not Call legislation. These, too, need to be re-examined, says Goldberg, who believes they are impairing e-commerce. "In my view they have not served their purpose," which should be to go after serious spammers and telephone solicitors. Instead, he says the CRTC is going after small fish.
- The CRTC: When it came into power, the Conservative government issued a directive to the Regulator that it should "use measures that are efficient and proportionate to their purpose and that interfere with the operation of competitive market forces to the minimum extent necessary to meet the policy objectives." Will the Liberal government give the Commission a directive, as the last one did, and if so, what will it be?
Chairman Jean-Pierre Blais' five-year term expires June, 2017.
- Canadians left behind: "I continue to be troubled by the challenge of low income Canadians not being online," says Goldberg, "especially households with children. I don’t think we’ve done enough to date, and I think that's an opportunity for a new government."
