TORONTO – The day after the Heritage Minister tabled amendments to the Broadcasting Act in the House of Commons, the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, Navdeep Bains, “attended” the ISP Summit virtually in a somewhat stilted, and awfully short, Q&A session with Matt Stein, chair of Competitive Network Operators of Canada (CNOC) and CEO of Distributel.
The questions seemed read and planned before the questions were asked – and it was over in seven minutes.
That is called controlling the message.
The Minister reiterated his stance that in response to the appeal of the August 2019 wholesale rates decision to Cabinet, the government in fact “did not overturn or return the decision. We deferred to the CRTC ongoing process,” even though it’s pretty strange for the federal government to issue a cabinet comment on a still unresolved CRTC appeal.
“At the end of the day the rates had to account for the underlying cost of the structures,” the Minister added.
Bains also had no word on any possible Telecommunications Act amendments. Despite the fact Tuesday’s Broadcast Act amendments follow some of the recommendation of the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review Panel, tabled in January, that panel made 35 recommendations to change or update the Telecom Act. So far, Bains and ISED have been silent.
When Cartt.ca asked the ministerial media relations person when Telecom Act changes could be expected, we received the following answer: “The Government of Canada continues to analyse the full set of recommendations, including those concerning the Telecommunications Act.”
A recurring theme at this summit was the slowness of the processes, whether regulatory or governmental. The case of the CRTC decision on wholesale fees for third party internet access providers, mentioned earlier, is a good example. Four years of interim rates were followed by the Commission decision and now we’re well over a year past that decision, past one Federal Court of appeal win for the independents and now the CRTC is reviewing its own decision after the Court and cabinet have decided not to overturn it, even though cabinet’s comments made it clear it wanted the Commission to rethink it.
The blame game was on big time and towards the end it seems the government was blamed for not forcing the CRTC to speed things up or do its job.
Matt Stein, in his speech to the conference Wednesday alluded to how the incumbents were thumbing their noses at the Commission without consequences. “And unlike even a few years ago, they are getting away scot-free,” he said. (Ed note: perhaps Scott-free?)
Stein offered proposals to speed up appeal processes, but the Government might not be inclined to do much more than it is. However, one of the barely noticed amendments of the Broadcasting Act tabled this week, changes the time the Government has to issue a decision on Cabinet appeals of CRTC broadcast decisions from 90 days to 180 days.
Those on the telecom side would love such shorter deadlines, or maybe a longer appearance by the ISED minister to explain a few more things, better.
