In ‘unusual’ move, Blais calls for national digital strategy

GATINEAU, Que. — The ongoing basic services hearing may be the “last, best chance” for the CRTC and the stakeholders appearing before its five-person panel to formulate some sort of national broadband strategy, commission chair Jean-Pierre Blais said Monday. Blais, taking the unusual step of making a formal statement partway through a public hearing that outlined “preliminary conclusions,” said he spent the weekend reflecting on what the panel heard during the first week of the three-week proceeding. “Overall, in a nutshell, witnesses that appeared so far have agreed to a self-evident truth: today, in Canada, broadband is vital,” Blais said, before the group adjourned for lunch. “So unless you disagree with this conclusion, let us not spend more hearing time on this self-evident truth. We have other, more important things to focus on.” Among those more-important things was the idea that the CRTC will have to take the lead in creating a national digital strategy, in the absence of one from the federal government. “Every month that goes by, without a more robust Canadian broadband strategy, means Canada is competitively disadvantaged as other countries move ahead and advance on their digital productivity, innovation and competitiveness,” Blais said, noting during his remarks that he was speaking for the entire panel. “We are heading quickly, if we are not already there, towards a digital society and a digital knowledge-based economy, the society of algorithms. Canada needs a plan.” As previously reported by The Wire Report, the new Liberal government has not indicated any particular policy direction for the telecommunications industry, outside of a brief mention in the new Innovation, Science and Economic Development minister’s mandate letter and a new $500-million rural broadband program in last month’s budget. That budget funding doesn’t appear to be tied to any policy, said Blais. “It strikes me that this proceeding, launched over 12 months ago, may very well be the last best chance to get it right — a chance to create, together, a coherent national broadband strategy, through an open and transparent process, based on evidence from all Canadians, achieved (to the extent possible) through consensus and implemented through shared responsibility,” Blais said. Blais’ statement raised three questions that he cautioned upcoming delegates the panel would now be zeroing in on: where are the gaps to access to connectivity, what are the best ways to eliminate those gaps and whether Canada has a national broadband strategy. He told a story in French about an individual from a foreign delegation who, while looking at the previous government’s Digital Canada 150 strategy, thought that document was a brochure for a complete plan and had to be told a more detailed document did not exist. “To be clear, while the CRTC may be taking some leadership on defining the strategy, it will not be alone implementing and financing it,” Blais said. “The important part of the discussion over the remaining days will be to understand the role of various players: citizens, governments, industry and the CRTC.” Former CRTC commissioner and interim chair Len Katz said in a phone interview that Blais’ speech, and the fact that it took place halfway through a proceeding, was “very, very unusual.” “It’s what he’s looking for in order to move to the next step that I think is unusual. He’s sending a signal to the government now, rather than waiting for a decision to be rendered, where the CRTC may in fact be saying ‘look, we need a strategy here because there are a lot of Canadians that don’t have access to this type of technology.” Katz added: “I found that very interesting. I mean, there were other proceedings in the past where the CRTC would have loved to have had some direction from the government as to how they wanted to go, but recognized that as an independent, quasi-judicial body, you can’t sort of ask for direction, you’ve got to go with what you have, listen to the evidence, and then make a decision.” The federal government has the power to both direct the CRTC and overrule its decisions, Katz noted, adding that the current Liberal government “hasn’t really proclaimed very much on a digital strategy.” Innovation Canada spokesman Hans Parmar said in an email that that it would not be appropriate to comment specifically on an active CRTC hearing, but said “the government understands the need for accessible, reliable, and affordable high-speed Internet so Canadians can fully participate in the digital economy.” The email added the department “will continue to work in supporting competition, choice and availability of services that will be good for consumers and businesses.” Katz said Blais could be “hoping they could sort of give him a smoke signal as to which way they’re heading as a government with regard to a national digital strategy. So that way he can try and dovetail any decision coming out of the CRTC with the overarching direction that the government may be planning to pursue.” He noted that this may be among the last major policy decisions Blais will oversee during his five-year term, unless that term is extended or he is reappointed. “Whenever chairmen get towards the last year of their tenure, no different than the U.S. president, they’re looking for a legacy, something to allow people to say ‘during his time, this is what he accomplished,’” Katz said. The timing of the statement was no accident, with Blais highlighting that it was purposely coming before appearances by the country’s largest telecommunications companies, including Telus Corp., which presented later in the afternoon. According to Telus, any national plan should address those left out of private or public sector efforts. “There may be pockets of this country that may never be served, frankly,” Ted Woodhead, Telus’ senior vice president of federal government and regulatory affairs, said, noting improvements that satellite provider Xplornet Communications Inc. said are coming in the near future. “Assuming there is progress made there in relatively short order, then whatever is left over I think is where the focus of all of our attention should be because those are the people who, I think, get potentially left behind in all of this because there’s things going on by private sector actors, public sector actors to address the vast majority of the rest of it.” When asked to clarify his remarks by vice-chair Peter Menzies, Woodhead said he wasn’t trying to be glib, but noted that there are areas of the country where telephone service is still unavailable, despite there being a universal service objective. In terms of Telus taking initiative, Woodhead said the company was in the process of developing its own low-cost Internet package for low-income families. The proposed $9.95-per-month pilot project would be targeted towards 5,000 families in British Columbia and Alberta with household incomes of less than $34,000, and who receive the Canada Child Benefit. It’s a program that has been in the works for the past three-and-a-half years, said Woodhead, and would be run in conjunction with the Computers for Success program. After the term of the pilot program, Woodhead said it would be analyzed to see if it was effective, and if deemed successful, then Telus would look to the CRTC to help make it a national program. Earlier in the day, the panel heard from delegations representing Canadians with disabilities and the deaf community. Both groups called for increased download and upload speed targets, noting a reliance on video applications for communications. They also advocated for subsidies for Canadians with disabilities, since those with severe disabilities are also typically low income due to barriers to employment. Both Telus and representatives of the B.C. Broadband Association, whose members are mostly ISPs that serve rural communities in the province, stated their opposition to subsidy programs. The ongoing subsidy regime has a lot of overhead costs, and provides incumbents with the incentive to move into those rural areas, Chris Allen, association director and president of ABC Communications, said. It would also be premature to move forward on a funding program without seeing how the remainder of the government funding would affect existing service gaps, Allen said. — With reporting by Charelle Evelyn at cevelyn@thewirereport.caand reporting and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

In ‘unusual’ move, Blais calls for national digital strategy

News | April 18, 2016

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In ‘unusual’ move, Blais calls for national digital strategy

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