CRTC head makes surprise early exit by Jeff Gray & Daniel LeBlanc
Source : Globe & Mail
Dec 05, 2000
by Jeff Gray & Daniel LeBlanc
The head of the CRTC announced an early exit from the agency Tuesday after the government failed to guarantee her a second mandate.
Françoise Bertrand surprised a number of industry observers as she announced that she was quitting next February to join the corporate management firm Secor Consulting. Her appointment still had eight months to run.
Ms. Bertrand said in an interview that the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission evolved greatly during her tenure, and that the federal government needs to change its legislative framework to adapt to the new realities of the Internet and globalization.
"I'm confident that Parliament and the government will look into these issues," she said.
A government source said that Ms. Bertrand recently inquired about the possibility of a second term, but that the government could not offer a definite answer.
Ms. Bertrand, 52, said she is pleased with her new job, which will see her do international work from Paris, among other things.
"I would have liked a second mandate, until I got an attractive offer that made me think twice," she said.
She was appointed in 1996 for a five-year term that was scheduled to end in August. Ms. Bertrand presided over the CRTC in a time of great technological change, with the explosive development of the Internet, the growth of specialty TV channels and corporate consolidation.
Her work received praise from all sides.
Both the Canadian Association of Broadcasters and the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting said she had done a great job.
The broadcasters applauded Ms. Bertrand for approving a number of mergers in the industry, for approving more specialty channels than originally planned, for driving competition in the telephone world and for staying away from regulating the Internet.
"There's often a Canadian bias against mergers, but she understood that what's big in Canada is small in the world," Michael McCabe of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters said.
The CRTC is expected to announce in coming days a decision on BCE's $2.3-billion purchase of the CTV broadcasting network. If past rulings offer any indication, that purchase should be approved with minimal conditions.
Mr. McCabe also praised the CRTC for adding flexibility to its Canadian-content rules for prime-time TV. He said new rules allowed broadcasters to program more documentaries, comedy and variety to qualify as Canadian content.
Ian Morrison of the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting said that Ms. Bertrand opened the CRTC to more public participation, namely by running consultations across the country.
He said that when the CRTC approved consolidations, there was always a quid pro quo, either through more Canadian content or better services to customers. He said the CRTC often annoyed the private sector as well, through rulings such as the one that prevented CTV from owning both Sportsnet and TSN.
Mr. Morrison said Ms. Bertrand was not working for the industry interest, but rather for the public interest.
Potential successors include François Macerola of Telefilm Canada, David Colville of the CRTC's telecommunications division, and Richard Stursberg, who has much experience in the cable industry.
Ms. Bertrand did not want to comment on the challenges ahead for her successors. She did say that she is handing over a much different CRTC than the one she was handed.
"We have to see ourselves more and more like a facilitator of change. To do that, we have to accept change, to change along with the others. It's a role that we cannot avoid; it's extremely important."
