New CRTC head determined to raise profile by Antonia Zerbisias

by Antonia Zerbisias

Charles Dalfen wants to put some teeth back into the federal communications watchdog.

The new chair of the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission, whose appointment was announced yesterday by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, says he's determined "to raise the profile of the job."

He has already raised the pay, to somewhere between $317,000 and $370,000 a year, almost double what his predecessor, Françoise Bertrand, made.

That's just one of the reasons it took him so long to complete his negotiations for the appointment, which had been rumoured for months.

The other reason: To clarify the position of the chair, who has historically had to balance political forces with cultural and economic interests. And it doesn't help that the CRTC reports to two different ministries – Heritage on broadcasting matters and Industry on telecommunications regulation.

"One of the things I have tried to do in my discussions is to raise the profile of the job, both in terms of compensation and in terms of the importance of the institution," Dalfen, 58, said yesterday. "I wanted to ensure that, at the minister and deputy minister level of the relevant departments, I saw things the way they did, and more to the point, that they saw things the way I did on a number of key issues.

"All of these took time to work out. At the end of the day I agreed to do this and I'm confident that I'll be able to make a difference."

CRTC observers agree, welcoming the appointment.

"The commission needs a backbone, it needs a spine of steel, and this guy certainly is well-qualified to do that," said Ian Morrison, spokesperson of the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting lobby group, describing Dalfen's reputation as "sterling."

"His skills as both a leader and as a consensus builder will be crucial as the CRTC takes on the challenges of ensuring Canadian broadcasters remain competitive and deliver Canadian voices and stories in the new global, digital environment," said Michael McCabe, president of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters.

Dalfen, an international communications lawyer who divides his time between his Ottawa home and Toronto apartment, will move into his new CRTC office in January.

But it won't be his first time in the place. The Montreal native was the CRTC's vice-chair from 1976-1980. Currently he's a senior partner in the Torys law firm, where he advises clients on domestic and international media law.

That means he has worked with Canada's major players, including Bell Globemedia, which owns CTV, CanWest Global and Torstar, which owns The Star, in various CRTC capacities.

He was also involved in "the early phases" of Torstar's application for TV licences in Toronto, Hamilton and Kitchener. They will be heard, along with applications from Alliance Atlantis, Rogers, Craig and CanWest, by the CRTC in Hamilton next week.

"Obviously I will recuse myself from the decision; that will be made very clear when the decision comes out," he said, adding that he is resigning from all his media files at the end of the week.

Dalfen comes to the job at a critical juncture in media history. He's determined that the regulator steers the country in the right direction. "We're at a crossroads now in this country: The commission has approved a number of important mergers; the Internet's a challenge, and we're trying to figure out a way forward with huge pressures on the system coming from every direction," he said. "It's a challenge."

And there will be many more challenges ahead. In recent years, the commission has been scarred by internal squabbles. One of Dalfen's first jobs will be to rally the troops.

"There's certainly a lot of dissents," he agrees. "I have heard reports as an outsider. I read the dissents. But I am promising myself to really listen very carefully in the early phase to every side of these issues and start to form my conclusions when I've been there for three or four months. At this point I don't come in with an agenda on any subject."

But it's clear Dalfen has strong ideas on strengthening Canada's cultural and communications ties: "As Canadians, do we want to be independent and, if we want to be independent, how do we ensure that our institutions play a role in helping us preserving that independence? We've been asking ourselves these questions for more than 100 years and will continue to.

"The CRTC is right where the rubber hits the road on that issue and so it will get debated. But I look forward to the debate because it's an absolutely vital one."

© The Toronto Star