HALIFAX – He’s not exactly going out on a limb by saying it, but CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein told a group of teachers on Friday that the two dated Acts that govern the CRTC desperately need updating.
In a speech to the Conference of the Broadcast Educators Association of Canada, von Finckenstein noted it’s closing in on 20 years since the last time the Broadcasting Act and the Telecommunications Act – documents that “ are very much products of their times” – have been updated, he said.
“They were conceived for an environment where bandwidth and spectrum were scarce, digital technologies were in their infancy and their full impact was not yet appreciated.
“The Telecommunications Act was based on the principle of assuring equal access whereas the Broadcasting Act is concerned with the protection and provision of Canadian content,” noted the chair’s speech.
Having two such acts no longer provide the best tools to deal with the challenges that have arisen thanks to convergence. “They will eventually need to be merged under a single overarching communications policy,” said von Finckenstein.
“Of course, the responsibility for updating Canadian laws resides with Parliament and not with us.”
But while we all wait for that day (and such an overhaul currently appears nowhere on the Conservative government’s to-do list), the CRTC has changed and is changing, noted its leader.
“We need to adopt a new mindset that will allow us to break down the silos in our regulatory framework,” said von Finckenstein.
“Where the CRTC was once divided into two branches (telecom and broadcasting) we have added a third branch (grouping) together all activities that are common to both industries within this new branch, which we have called Policy Development and Research.
“Among its responsibilities, this branch has been tasked with spearheading proceedings that deal with convergence issues and providing appropriate regulatory responses,” he added.
The new branch is also conducting economic analysis of the broadcasting and telecommunications industries, which feeds into the CRTC’s annual report on the overall communications industry, and it must also anticipate technological, consumer and corporate trends.
“In this way, we are capable of addressing issues that are common to both broadcasting and telecommunications in a streamlined and consistent manner,” said von Finckenstein.
“Despite these organizational adjustments, there is a significant challenge ahead of us. This challenge can best be summed up in three ways,” he explained.
“We must develop the appropriate regulatory concepts for a converged communications environment. In an age of globalization and increasing media concentration, we must find ways to preserve the diversity of voices available to Canadians in the broadcasting system, and especially a range of perspectives in news and information. And we must develop a regulatory environment that will allow Canada to remain at the forefront of the digital era and prosper in the digital media environment.
“The transition to the digital era is leading us into uncharted territories, and will evolve in ways that are impossible to predict,” he added.
– Greg O’Brien
