AFTER HIS SPEECH TO IIC Canada Wednesday afternoon in Ottawa, we sat down with CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais for a quick chat about his talk – and a few other things.
What follows is an edited transcript, lightly edited for clarity
Greg O’Brien: That was an aggressive speech, from my point of view. Was that a goodbye?
Jean-Pierre Blais: No, I don’t think it’s a goodbye. I said what we would be doing and I was taking stock of where we were at, four years later.
GOB: Are you looking to be renewed (as CRTC chairman)?
JPB: That’s not my decision, you know that. I started in the public service later than most… I still want to work. I’m on leave without pay from an ADM (assistant deputy minister) position, am happy to go back to that, happy to serve in another way. I like the public service. I think we can do great things and I think I have skills to contribute.
GOB: OK, so, maybe?
JPB: I don’t know. Nobody’s asked… Look, I think whether it’s me or anyone else, there are some important things left to be done which – even with the best of intentions, you can’t speed up. I’m concerned that the disaggregated wholesale framework needs to be implemented, and that’s like pulling teeth and yet it’s important to competition.
“There’s work to be done and there are people lining up to undo things.” – Jean-Pierre Blais, CRTC
I think out of our basic telecom service proceeding, there may be some follow-ups there, too – and so whether it’s me or someone else, there’s work to be done and there are people lining up to undo things, obviously – and so it will be important to the CRTC to be cognizant of that.”
GOB: Well, it’s an open conversation among people I deal with where they’re saying, once you’re gone, they’re going to go after the next chair and try to undo a bunch of these things.
JPB: Of course. That’s exactly how the Commission has fallen for many decades in regulatory capture. People came from the industry, came to the Commission and went back to the industry. I’m not sure that’s a good governance model.
Hopefully, we’ve broken that model to some degree and I’m hopeful that the future bodes well.
GOB: I moderated a panel at the Canadian Telecom Summit in June where the guys from Bell and Rogers and the others complained there are no more back-channel communications with the Commission any more, (their) staff can’t meet (CRTC) staff and they complained about that as well.
JPB: I’m not sure that’s the case, but we, the Commissioners, are members of an administrative tribunal with a duty to act fairly. We will do that.
There’s too much money at stake for decisions to be voided because we’ve had inappropriate ex parte contacts. That’s all… They may have liked that they could have back-door, behind closed doors conversations in the past, I’m not saying they were appropriate or inappropriate. We, legal staff and policy staff will, in appropriate circumstances, meet – even I meet with people as long as we aren’t talking about files that are before us, or about to be filed.
That’s how it should operate and I’ll make no apologies for that.
GOB: Are you pleased with the way the last number of months have gone on the TV file with skinny basic and with pick and pay approaching?
JPB: Well, we’ll be ruling soon on that September hearing… People, some reporters, are focusing a lot on skinny, when it was just an element of a much more rich choice agenda. You could decide to get rid of television providers entirely and go entirely streaming. You have a choice of going with over-the-air, you can go with skinny, you can go with skinny-plus and as of December your plus can be either pick and pay or small bundles.
The Commission wasn’t trying to say: “thou shalt take this.” We were saying “you shall offer these choices” and Canadians will make the proper choice based on the realities of their households, the reality of what they like to see, what their viewing habits are – and their wallets. A two-person household with large income is very different than a larger household with lesser income. What we were trying to do is provide choice and those are all the choices there.
And, on top of that, you have choices of service providers. Yes, it creates more burden on consumers to shop around, but that’s what a competitive market is about.
But, we’ll see. I was pleased that the mere fact we decided to hold the hearing in September, resulted in some companies changing their behaviour.
GOB: Everyone talks about innovation so I was kind of disappointed when skinny basic came out everyone, essentially, said “well, here it is at $24.99/month”. No one did anything different.
JPB: We always focus on the large players.
GOB: You’re right, VMedia came out cheaper as did some others.
JPB: So where’s the voice that says “look folks, you do have a choice over here. There are innovators. There they are.”
GOB: Sure. We’ve written about VMedia and others…
JPB: Yeah, but to be fair, you’re not a national…
GOB: I know, I am what I am.
JPB: You’re good and powerful and all that, but where are the national papers on this issue helping Canadians? I saw some articles this weekend on helping Canadians bargaining for wireless service providers… They need to do more of that to help Canadians make important choices. They’re part of the ecosystem and that’s what we’re offering.
It is a largely deregulated market but it’s about making sure it continues to be dynamic and it will only work if people feel it. We got rid of the 30-day rule, we’ve licensed or authorized new providers… there are new players arising. There’s no longer that territorial protection on the terrestrial side of cable distribution.”
We’ve removed many barriers but the reality is that the companies don’t want churn. They want their ARPU…
“That doesn’t mean we’re not going to try to do what we can to make sure that there is churn.” – Blais
GOB: They’ve got to hit their quarterlies.
JPB: Absolutely. But that doesn’t mean we’re not going to try to do what we can to make sure that there is churn and that companies are actually competing on the price of communications services.
GOB: And you have to expect churn. Other retailers fight that all the time with sales or switching up the end caps in grocery stores to bring more in, there are all sorts of loss-leaders and I really thought skinny basic would be a perfect loss leader where you could say, “if you buy broadband, we’ll give you the skinny basic package” and then sell more TV on top of that.
Minister Joly’s (Canadian content) review. I wonder what your thoughts are on that and how it’s been rolling out across the country.
JPB: I don’t have any particular views. It’s important for Minister Joly to hear what Canadians have to say and it’s all good. I think the minister is aware of the new digital realities, the new international realities, and she’ll say a little bit more tomorrow (Thursday), we’ll see. But as I said in the speech today, we have to continue to do our job, regardless of any change that will come.
GOB: No worry that she might undo some of the things that have changed under your watch?
JPB: They’re the duly elected government of Canada so they’re entitled to undo it as long as they do it appropriately through legislation or by cabinet appeals… I guess she could review some licensing decisions on the broadcasting side… but I saw no signals of that.
GOB: Well, there’s been no real nitty-gritty just yet, just a lot of, as they say in the corporate executive world, “views from 30,000 feet”.
JPB: So, we just have to keep doing our work then and even if there are some sort of legislative amendments, it takes time to do those.
GOB: It was a strong speech today which I think will piss off some of my readers.
JPB: My point is not to piss off people. My point is to say what I think. I’ve always told people I listen as if I’m wrong but I speak as if I’m right and I do a lot of reflection in between, so when I speak, it’s because I have come to that conclusion.
It’s not a diplomatic posting, let’s just say. And that’s the brief I carry.
GOB: And no one can really say you didn’t do what you said you would do when you spoke here back in 2012.
JPB: Exactly… As long as people say they want predictability, I’m fastidiously predictable.
Photo is a screen cap of a CRTC hearing as shown on CPAC.ca
