OTTAWA – The process to find the new chairperson of the CRTC is officially underway today, less than two weeks before outgoing chair Konrad von Finckenstein’s term expires on January 24.
The chair, "Chief Executive Officer of the CRTC… establishes the corporate vision and values, defines the strategic priorities and plans and sets up the organization structure and operational systems and processes to guide the work of members and staff. This includes assigning members to panels and providing strong functional direction and expertise to members to enhance their conduct of delegated panel responsibilities and other areas of activity and to ensure executive direction of professional staff. He or she directs the development of policies, recommends their approval to the CRTC members and oversees their implementation," reads the posting. The pay range quoted is $256,100 – $301,200.
The official job description went up on the CRTC’s site on Wednesday. As we speculated in the Fall, certain candidates cropped up throughout 2011: former Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon, Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association president and CEO Bernard Lord, former Quebecor Inc. senior vice-president communications Luc Lavoie, and current CRTC vice-chair, broadcasting, Tom Pentefountas.
However, since then, it is thought that Cannon has taken himself out of the running and lawyer George Addy, senior partner at Davies is a potential candidate. Addy heads that firm's competition and foreign investment review sector and is part of the technology and communications and media practices. He was also head of the Canadian Competition Bureau in the 1990s and after that was executive vice-president and chief general counsel at Telus.
But with precious little time left before von Finckenstein's departure, it seems likely that either Pentefountas or the Commission's vice-chairman, telecom, Len Katz will be named acting chair in the meantime (unless the Prime Minister's Office has made its pick already and hasn't yet told anyone).
– Cartt.ca staff
