OTTAWA – Just two years into his five-year mandate, CRTC vice-chair, telecom, Richard French, told Heritage Minister Bev Oda on Thursday he will be stepping down no later than June 15th of this year.
French told Cartt.ca on Monday that he is resigning now before section 75 of the Federal Accountability Act applies to him. That’s the portion of new federal legislation that will essentially prevent anyone who works for the government or a government agency to lobby the government or even to hold a leadership position in a company that gets government contracts for up to five years.
"I don’t feel like having that additional restraint placed on my future," said French. He added he is a shareholder in some small companies which receive government contracts and he would not want to see that work affected by his status.
He added he could go sooner than June 15th if the Minister so desires and he chose to tender his resignation now because "my successor will play a role in the essential services process," which began last fall and will have hearings this fall.
Inside the Commission, say sources, French was clearly frustrated with the role of commissioner and has been making noises about wanting to leave for some time, a sentiment he confirmed to Cartt.ca saying few at the CRTC will be surprised by the move. He declined to go into specifics as to what some of those frustrations were.
However, as vice-chair telecom, some will speculate that he’s leaving because of the policy directives issued by the federal government overriding telecom decisions made by the CRTC under French’s watch. Not so, he insists.
Reading from his resignation letter to the Minister of Heritage, he said: "For the record, I would like to state that my resignation is in no way a reaction to the government’s telecommunications policy initiatives. Any attempt to portray it as a protest against, or a disagreement with, those policies would be without foundation in fact."
French (pictured) joined the Commission on February 28, 2005 after serving in such roles as group vice-president with Bell Canada, and as president and CEO of Tata Communications, a mobile telecommunications joint venture between Bell Canada International and Industries PVT in India.
During the 1980s, he was twice elected to the National Assembly of Quebec and held Cabinet positions as Minister of Communications, Minister of Technology, and Minister of Supply and Services. He served in the Government of Canada at the Privy Council Office and the Department of Science and Technology, too.
He is a Rhodes Scholar who holds a D. Phil. in History from Oxford, and has taught history at Princeton and management at McGill.
