OTTAWA – That’s the question the entire industry is asking. With no direct experience in the cable, telecom, or TV fields, what does the eminently qualified career public servant have in mind for the CRTC as its new chairman?
At this point, no one really knows.
"He’s a bright guy and is certainly engaged in the dialogue a little bit from what we know about him in communications issues," said Rogers Communications vice-chair Phil Lind. "He could be good."
"Was I surprised it was him? Yes. But once the process got derailed and once Fern (Belisle, the front-runner in the fall) got nixed, then we were prepared for someone else as the choice."
Lind pointed out that one could have seen it coming, if you knew where to look. Kevin Lynch, the clerk of the Privy Council, secretary to Cabinet and key Prime Minister Stephen Harper advisor, knows von Finckenstein from his five years as deputy minister of Industry (1995-2000) under John Manley. Lynch would have been a key supporter of von Finckenstein when he was appointed the head of the Competition Bureau in 1997.
Of course, given all the regulatory change that has happened in the last 12 months on the telecom file (including two unprecedented policy directives to the CRTC), speculation has been that the now former judge and Competition Bureau head is coming in with a mandate of change.
Maybe, says Canadian Association of Broadcasters president and CEO Glenn O’Farrell. "He comes with the benediction and appointment of the new conservative government and we know what directions they have taken in telecom over the last year – so one would have to expect this appointment would not be out of sync with those previous directions," he explained.
"But I don’t know more than that… The question now is: ‘Who is Konrad von Finckenstein?’"
The chair, of course, is but one vote when it comes to policy direction and other decisions and while he’ll surely have his say on the new TV Policy before its decided and announced, what’s likely more important are the number of commissioner terms expiring and the vacancies the federal government has said it intends to fill.
Commissioner Joan Pennefather’s term, for example, expires March 22. Barbara Cram and Andrée Noel’s expire October 31st and Stuart Langford’s ends November 15th. It’s not known definitively if any of these will get another five years, but Pennefather is not expected to be back. Counting these four plus two vacancies, we’re going to see "a brand new face." of the Commission, says O’Farrell.
"We’re going to have a very new Commission. Where it’s going to go and what it will do, we’ll all have to wait and see."
