GATINEAU – More than 3,000 comments were filed with the CRTC in connection with its hearing into a potential Canadian video relay service (VRS), including, for the first time, submissions made using sign language through the Commission’s YouTube channel, said vice chair Peter Menzies.
Opening the week long hearing on Monday morning, Menzies instructed appearing parties that their presentations should include views and evidence to address the following:
– What are the benefits of video relay service? To what extent, if any, does it meet the needs of people who are deaf, hard of hearing or speech impaired better than the technologies currently available?
– Are the necessary interpreter resources available?
– What are the implications of video relay service for emergency calls and caller privacy?
– What costs are related to the implementation of video relay service?
– How could such a service best be administered and by whom?
“I would like to remind everyone that the Commission is an administrative tribunal, which does not provide funds to set up or administer a telecommunications service”, he added. “Rather, funding for video relay service would come, ultimately, from providers and most likely subscribers of telecommunications services.”
Currently, two text-based relay services, Internet Protocol relay and teletypewriter relay, are available to Canadians who are deaf, hard of hearing or speech impaired. Video relay service would enable people who use sign language to communicate with voice telephone users via an operator who relays the conversation from sign language to spoken language, and vice versa.
The panel members are Elizabeth Duncan, regional commissioner for the Atlantic and Nunavut; Tom Pentefountas, vice-chairman of broadcasting; Raj Shoan, regional commissioner for Ontario; Stephen Simpson, regional commissioner for British Columbia and Yukon; and Peter Menzies, vice-chairman of telecommunications, who is also presiding over this hearing.
The Commission team assisting the panel is Kay Saicheua, Hearing Manager and Manager of Social Policy; Lori Pope and Daniel Finestone, Legal Counsel; and Jade Roy, Hearing Secretary and Public Hearings Supervisor.
