Broadcast, telecom acts review panel kicks off consultation

OTTAWA — The expert panel in charge of reviewing Canada’s communications legislation launched its consultation process Tuesday, on the same day a former CRTC chairman urged a Senate committee to adopt an “internet-centric” approach and completely separate telecom and broadcasting laws and regulators. The panel studying how to modernize the telecom, broadcasting and radiocommunication acts opened a call for consultation Tuesday, asking for written comments to be submitted by Nov. 30. It also outlined four themes it said will guide the consultation: reducing “barriers to access by all Canadians to advanced telecommunications networks,” the creation and discoverability of Canadian content, digital consumer rights, and the “institutional framework for the communications sector.” The call for comments was released on the same morning the Senate committee on transport and communications heard from former CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein, who said those reforming the legislation should “examine everything from an internet-centric point of view,” given that the key issues related to telecom, such as security, privacy, and consumer protection, are internet-related. “To paraphrase Bill Clinton, ‘it’s the internet, stupid’,” he said. The explosive growth and evolution of the internet has also led von Finckenstein to change his view on how the communications legislation should be structured. While back in 2010 he called for a single piece of legislation to cover telecom, broadcasting and radio communications, he said Tuesday he no longer believes that’s the way to go. “Social media basically didn’t exist, the expression didn’t exist when I became chairman,” he said as one example of how things have changed in an interview after his appearance. “It’s totally different from broadcasting. It’s a different world...It developed faster and differently than anyone expected.” Broadcasting and telecom are now two “quite different universes,” and if they are put together, telecom will always be viewed through a broadcasting lens, he said. In his opening statement, von Finckenstein said “telecommunications is by far the more critical to the health of the economy as a whole, and impacts individual Canadians and businesses in greater measure” than broadcasting-related issues. He noted Canadians use the internet for much more than just consuming audio or video content, and the fact that the internet has become so critical to Canadians has “made aspects of telecommunications regulation more important than any time since we established basic telephony.” Von Finckenstein said the radiocommunications and telecom acts should be combined, with one minister and regulator overseeing the administration of that combined act, and a different minister and regulatory agency for a separate broadcasting act. He also said privacy is becoming a key issue, given that “everything about you can be found somewhere on the internet,” and that Canada has “not really addressed in the context of the internet.” He also called for foreign over-the-top (OTT) services to have to pay sales tax, given that domestic streaming services do. “What on earth are we doing? There are cultural policies to favour Canadian production but we discriminate against Canadian distributors,” he said. “Our trade policy is based on protecting cultural industries, we have the cultural exemption under NAFTA, etc, but here when it comes to this, we suddenly… discriminate against our own. To me it doesn’t make sense.” Von Finckenstein also told senators he will be meeting privately with the chairwoman of the expert panel appointed by the heritage minister to run the legislative review. He said he didn’t understand why the senate committee study is separate from the expert panel. Liberal Sen. Dennis Dawson responded that the committee had already decided to hold its consultation before that expert panel was launched, and that the difference between the two is that the senate study will be public. He noted the Senate committee hopes to release its report before the next election. In addition to launching the call for comments Tuesday, the panel will also participate in various conferences and meet with “a cross-section of experts, creators, stakeholders and other interested parties,” a press release outlined. The panel plans to issue an initial report in the spring of 2019 on what it heard during the consultation process and will “announce at that time what further consultations, if any, will be undertaken in advance of its final report by January 31, 2020.” In the consultation document, the panel also elaborated on the four themes it said will “help guide its work and structure meaningful dialogue during its consultation process.” As part of how reduce barriers to advanced networks, it is weighing rural broadband, network security and a legislative framework for 5G that “is able to ensure the provision of adequate spectrum for advanced services, safe and efficient radio apparatus, and access to the 'passive infrastructure' (i.e. poles, ducts and rights-of-way) required to accommodate the advanced and ubiquitous networks of tomorrow.” It noted challenges around discoverability of Canadian content, the role of CBC/Radio-Canada and “how the legislative and regulatory framework may be modified to ensure that all players, including online players that garner revenue in Canada, play a role in the creation, production, and distribution of Canadian content.” Issues affecting digital consumers include privacy and complicated contracts and terms of service documents, while its review of the institutional framework will consider “the allocation of regulatory responsibilities between the government and the regulator as well as the mechanisms for legal oversight in the system.” The document added it “is also necessary to consider whether new or different legal powers or regulatory tools may be needed to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the system and the governance of the communications sector in the digital environment.” — With reporting by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca and editing by Kyle Duggan at kduggan@thewirereport.ca

Broadcast, telecom acts review panel kicks off consultation

News | September 25, 2018

Unlock all the Canadian telecom, broadcasting and digital media news you need.

FREE TRIAL

SUBSCRIBE

Inside The Wire Report

Information

Hill Times Publishing

Get in Touch With Us

Broadcast, telecom acts review panel kicks off consultation

News | September 25, 2018

Unlock all the Canadian telecom, broadcasting and digital media news you need.

FREE TRIAL

SUBSCRIBE

Related Stories

Google $1B news initiative won’t stop new legislation, gov’t says

Gov’t to introduce web giant, CanCon, news legislation in fall: Guilbeault

Advertising market in ‘modest recovery’: Corus

BTLR recs could see U.S. tariff levies under USMCA: Geist

Reuse & Permissions

Inside The Wire Report

Information

Hill Times Publishing

Get in Touch With Us