WELL, GIVEN THAT WE'RE celebrating media in Alberta, let's just start by saying that CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais demurred from simply mumbling "adios" and riding quietly into a western sunset.
This was his final Banff rodeo as CRTC chair and he went out with hot guns a blazing. (At right is an artist’s conception of the CRTC chair and his speechwriter leaving Banff for the Calgary airport Tuesday…)
To put it mildly, some of the delegate chattering classes were upset with the bullets, many of which – they winced – were dipped in venom.
In my view, there was nothing conceptual in JP's discourse that was inappropriate for vigorous discussion. But the delivery…
It's imperative that the Minister, the Commission, industry stakeholders and the public wrestle with issues of diversity, with the parts of the status quo which just won't hold in our digital era, with broadband and the fundamental right of all Canadians to connectivity, with the free and forthright exchange of ideas, and with "one of the unfortunate paradoxes of the Internet age… that although all of us have a diversity of opinions from which we can choose, our focus is narrower than ever.”
I happen to think he's particularly accurate on that last point.
In our brave new world of apps and algorithms, there is arguably more concentration of power than in the dark ages of feudalism; while at the same time more public access to the public agora and information than in John Stuart Mills' most adventurous liberal democracy wet dream.
But did the medium also shoot the message?
I don't think our soon-to-be-former CRTC chair should be expecting any Corus or Bell Media offers in his Commission afterlife.
A well-respected, and usually congenial, broadcast executive went so far as to summarize JP's "adieu" as "one-third correct, one-third wrist slapping, one-third ego… and very controversial.”
Another kindred legal mind regretted that "his good points got fogged up with all the well-placed barbs.”
A senior public broadcaster opined "it was rich for JP to spank broadcasters on broadband, since he's the one that dropped the ball on foreign OTT engagement as an industry revenue stream.”
One independent producer asserted that "our independent production industry hasn't been seeing eye-to-eye with him for five years".
Today, Blais wasn't the poster child for the adage "you get more flies with honey than you do with vinegar,” but what's wrong with a timely dose of controversy?
Indeed, don't the critical issues facing our cultural, media industries require a little out-in-the-open wrangling, contention, and constructive argument?
A Minister tweeting policy a la Trump (hello, former minister Shelly Glover) during a regulatory proceeding is totally inappropriate… whether or not she has populist views on the so-called Netflix Tax.
And, by the way, why does Netflix get to have its own tax moniker? If an American company wants to sell toilets in Canada, we don't speculate about a Toilet Tax – it's just tax.
Which is to say that JP may be wrong, too.
I'm not sure that we can't assert sovereign tithing of non-Canadian OTT services or be more assertive about our content policy expectations. Just go to China on a future Ministerial mission and Google Tiananmen Square and see what does and doesn't pop up.
Or to put it another way, if you don't want your privacy compromised or your content shaped there are only two available antidotes: 1) don't buy a computer, or 2) if you do buy a computer don't use it.
Sure it's fun and provocative to quote Starbucks founder Howard Schultz (which Blais did today) on "any business today that embraces the status quo as an operating principle is going to be on a death march.”
Sure, the status quo has to change, however, do we need to denigrate the pillars that got us here? Do we really want to end BDU and private broadcaster participation in project funding? Or stable tax credits?
Blais is so right about so much, such as the vital role of the CBC, indigenous reconciliation, the role of women, and the imperative to confront fake news and alternative facts. He's spot on with regard to the Heritage Minister needing to smell the coffee about filling vice-chair and commissioner vacancies – that failure is, in fact, poor governance from The Hill.
Moreover, relying solely upon self-selection for those essential commission roles is just goofy. Like smart corporations, the selection process should include proactively looking for the best and the brightest, and convincing them that the fishbowl of public service isn't fatal.
The CRTC doesn't need more know-nothing Commissioners wasting their time and distracting from the tough business at hand. Jean-Pierre Blais' speech today in Banff should be shared and read by all of our cultural and media stakeholders — there's meat and meaning in his thoughts and words.
Yet there also blind spots.
He might have a few good and pressing reasons to poke Minister Joly, but he doesn't acknowledge that the CRTC chair and the Minister of Canadian Heritage have very different goals, not necessarily conflicting, but absolutely, utterly different.
Joly is, once you've peeled away the onion, all about jobs, GNP and relatively near-term results synced with election cycles.
The CRTC is about culture and – as per his treatise – "the regulator of communications enablers"; and therefore laying the essential groundwork "to prepare Canada's broadcasting and telecommunications sectors for broadband's pervasive and transformative influence.”
Moreover, a sound reason for Blais' case on extending appointment periods from five to seven years to appropriately lengthen the political leash – he's correct, where he said: "politicians are ill-equipped to make decisions to respond to digital disruption.”
Cabinet and Ministers are there to establish broad policy direction, but it is for the public servant with "exceptional qualifications" to translate that direction into implementation.
In sum, this was JP's drop-the-mic moment and if it wasn't quite venomous, it was certainly eye-openingly vigorous. I'm told that Commission staff tried hard to soften the text and focus on the message, clearly with mixed results.
Did our outgoing Chair set up his legacy in a constructive manner for his successor? Quite possibly not. (Especially the bit where he told the room – the Canada Media Fund breakfast, no less – that Canadians have forked over $20 billion over the past five years as taxpayers and subscribers to support broadcasters and creators and then asked: “What do you have to show them?”)
But eight of his words today should be taken to careful heart: "Think bigger, bolder and broader than ever before.”
Adios!
