GATINEAU – The tenure of CRTC vice-chair, broadcasting, Michel Arpin draws to a close at the end of August. According to sources, Arpin has already been officially notified by the Prime Minister’s Office that he will not be offered a renewal, so the big question in Gatineau is who will fill his shoes come September 1?
Arpin, a well-respected broadcast policy veteran with a long history in the industry, was appointed August 31, 2005 and prior to that was senior regulatory and governmental affairs advisor for Astral Media. Before that he worked for Radiomutuel. He had a prior stint with the Commission from 1971 to ’79, too. Arpin has been working in broadcasting since 1963.
Two familiar names we’ve heard bounced about from several Ottawa sources as potential replacements – which are maybe real, or maybe just trial balloons – are current CRTC commissioner Michel Morin (who has taken the role which the departed Stuart Langford played well – that of the serial dissenter on many CRTC decisions), and former Quebecor EVP corporate affairs Luc Lavoie, now with National Public Relations.
Morin was a broadcast journalist for over 30 years in Quebec, his last position being chief editor, TV news, for Radio-Canada and RDI. He was appointed CRTC commissioner in 2007 and is thought to be a very long shot to be promoted.
Lavoie worked for Quebecor for eight years before stepping down in 2008. He’s known as a shrewd public relations professional who’s well known as one of former Prime Minister (and current Quebecor board chair) Brian Mulroney’s top advisors (which may work against him as the Conservative government who would appoint him has worked to distance itself from the Mulroney Tories).
Other CRTC commissioners with shots at the job could be B.C. regional commissioner Stephen Simpson, and Ontario commissioner Rita Cugini. However, with an Anglophone in the vice-chair telecom seat (Len Katz), most expect the broadcasting VC to remain a Francophone Quebecker, partially to maintain balance on the Commission and partially to placate the separatist Bloc Quebecois party’s consistent requests for the province to, in fact, have its own Regulator.
That may limit, then, who could come from a broadcasting industry background to take the vice-chair spot as, to put it bluntly, anyone coming from a senior position in the private sector would likely be faced with a large pay cut.
“It’s not a long list of candidates if you’re only looking from the industry in Quebec,” said one source who spoke on condition of anonymity.
And that means some in Ottawa are thinking the feds will pick someone from outside the industry for the position.
“It could be another outsider, from some other agency in Ottawa who could be picked also to be the logical successor to (CRTC chairman Konrad) von Finckenstein,” said another source. The current chair’s term ends in January 2012.
Stay tuned…
