OTTAWA (CP) - The lineup of candidates wanting to fill the vacant position of CRTC chairman might be a short one this time around.
The Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission is an arms-length agency in an arm-wrestle with the Conservative government over the country's broadcasting and telephone regulations.
The commission's new political masters have preached a gospel of less regulation and letting market forces do their thing.
But the regulators caution: Slow down, think of the consumers and the new competitors.
It's hardly a new struggle but the Tories have shown an unprecedented assertiveness in pushing their vision for the telecom world, overturning CRTC decisions and issuing far-reaching directives.
"I would wonder whose self-respect would be so low that they'd be willing to be CRTC chair?" asks industry analyst Ian Angus of Angus Telemanagement.
"Why would you want to be chair of an independent regulatory body when the government has made it clear it will override you when it disagrees, unless you're only taking the job because you agree with the government's direction."
Agreeing with the government's direction necessarily means agreeing with Industry Minister Maxime Bernier, who has consistently advocated a smaller role for government in the telecommunications market.
Sources say deregulating the sector is Bernier's baby, an area where he hopes to a make a major mark while in his portfolio.
To that end, he sent the commission a major policy directive last week _ something entirely within his powers _ asking the CRTC to form its decisions with market forces as its main guide.
Bernier did so as a parliamentary committee told him to proceed more slowly.
"Our plan will increase competition in the marketplace, which ultimately will have a positive effect on the consumer who will benefit from greater choices and improved products and services," Bernier said.
And Bernier, backed by cabinet, also overturned two major CRTC decisions this year.
First he announced that there would be no price regulations placed on the former phone monoplies such as Bell and Telus when they wanted to sell their service over the Internet, known as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).
More importantly, he instructed the CRTC to stop regulating local phone service in areas where there was demonstrable competition, no matter how fledgling, despite the fact the former monopolies still control 92 per cent of the local market.
The commission had been moving more slowly toward deregulation.
The government's moves are nothing if not bold and have caused a fair amount of muttering over the fate of the CRTC.
But this willingness to push its telecommunications agenda poses a new set of problems for the Conservatives.
While Prime Minister Stephen Harper has made accountability and transparency a hallmark of his new government, overriding CRTC decisions could be deemed by some as contrary to that pledge.
"This has highly politicized the regulatory process, and it has given way to the lobbyists on a huge scale." said Angus.
As an independent agency, the commission has saved cabinets from having to rule in favour of one big corporation over another _ a theoretically depoliticized system, although commissioners are appointed by the government in power.
When companies apply for licences or make submissions on impending policies to the CRTC, everything is on the public record _ down to the addresses of the directors on their boards and letters from citizens.
But once an appeal of a CRTC decision is sent to cabinet, as was the case with the local telephone competition issue, all decision making becomes secret and to date the intense, expensive lobbying campaigns of politicians have remained behind closed doors.
"It does become a political thing and becomes pretty nasty when cabinet is being lobbied," says Andrew Cardozo, a CRTC commissioner between 1997-2003.
"The lobbying is extremely heavy, I would say often crosses the line, and becomes personal, either with ministers or personal with commissioners."
Requirements for lobbyists to register their meetings with public office-holders have only just been passed.
Cardozo says there's nothing wrong with a government from time to time signalling where it wants the commission to go. But if it repeatedly overrides its decisions, it's courting more political pressure.
"It's a conundrum for the cabinet given that it does have that political power: does it use that or not?" Cardozo said. "The more they use it, the more they get lobbied to use it."
And there's also the question of who is best qualified to make decisions in the telecom or broadcasting field.
Cabinet decisions can be made in a matter of minutes around a table, while the commission can spend months mulling over its verdict.
"What we have now is the cabinet simply substituting its ideologically based view, for the actual experience of the people who have worked with this," said Angus. "It that's not to say they're wrong, but it does mean they're throwing out a huge base of experience and knowledge in this field."
Still, the CRTC and cabinet locking horns is nothing particularly new.
Paul Martin's Liberal government bowed to public pressure and made sure that Italian television station RAI International was issued a digital licence, even though the CRTC had ruled against it to protect Canadian station TeleLatino.
And the commission got its fair share of heat from Jean Chretien's caucus when in 2000 it placed a number of conditions on the CBC's television licence, just as its new president Robert Rabinovitch was coming on board.
Cardozo says that push and pull is all part of the process, and he has some advice for the incoming chairperson.
"You're better off not wanting to have a career after this," he said.
"If you do your job properly as CRTC chair or member, at some point or another you will have ticked off every member of the industry, and you will have ticked off the government too. You've just got to go in there and do what you believe is the right thing to do, and you want to keep clear of the lobbyists."
© Canadian Press
