OTTAWA – The country’s national do not call list could run out of money by the end of March unless the CRTC and Industry Canada can establish long-term funding to continue investigating telemarketing complaints and enforcing compliance.
According to the Commission’s quarterly financial report for the period ended December 31, 2011, the lack of long-term funding for the DNCL continues to be “a challenge for workforce stability and staff retention”, and “failure to obtain additional funding beyond 2011?12 will put the continued operation of this activity at risk”.
To date, the CRTC’s investigation and enforcement activities have been funded by interim measures on a year-to-year basis. The report says that funding approved for 2010-11 and 2011-12 totalled $3.0 million ($2.6 million in voted authorities and $0.4 million for employee benefits plans). Although funding has been approved to the end of March 31, 2012, no funding has been identified beyond this period.
Another highlight from the report pertains to the Commission's anti-spam law which will receive $5.5 million in funding in 2011-12.
According to the report, in 2010-11, $2.9 million of anti-spam funding was provided by the end of the second quarter ($1.7 million for personnel and $1.2 million for operations and maintenance). As the funding was received late in the fiscal year, a request to reprofile $2.0 million ($0.9 million in 2011-12, $0.7 million in 2012-13 and $0.4 million in 2013-14) was submitted by the CRTC and was approved by Treasury Board Secretariat. In 2011-12, $5.2 million of anti-spam funding was provided by the end of the second quarter ($3.0 million for personnel and $2.2 million for operations and maintenance).
