The CRTC responded privately to Competitive Network Operators of Canada (ORCC) on Wednesday, telling it by email that it will not consider or publish its chairman’s recusal request, received from the body in early February. The Board adds that it leaves Ian Scott the responsibility of judging for himself whether he is in a conflict of interest when he gets involved in the files for which the Board is responsible.
The top executive of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) will then consider whether or not to recuse himself, as he always has on all matters since his appointment, and will render a decision regarding its involvement in these telecommunications matters at that time,” Senior General Counsel and Executive Director of the CRTC, Stephen Millington, wrote to the ORCC in an email The duty got a copy.
Tangible consequences
The lawyer adds to explain this refusal to examine or publish the request received from the ORCC, which goes against the practices of the Council, that “the decision of a member of the Council to recuse himself in a matter is a decision that only the member can make and does not involve the procedures of the Board. »
ORCC criticizes Ian Scott for sitting in December 2020 and without any official witnesses at the same table as the CEO of Bell to share a beer, just weeks before the CRTC apparently issued a judgment favorable to Bell in the resale of Internet bandwidth to regional providers. Ian Scott, a former vice-president of Telus, has also already openly declared himself in favor of strengthening the position of the national giants in the telecom sector.
According to Stephen Millington, it is up to Ian Scott himself to determine whether or not this behavior places the CRTC President in a conflict of interest when he participates in a judgment on issues such as the cost of access to the Canadian Internet infrastructure.
After all, this judgment has a significant impact for regional Internet service providers. At least one of them has closed due to the rising cost of access to infrastructure. Industry sources told the Duty that they foresee a movement of consolidation, because other regional suppliers are struggling to make ends meet since this increase in their operating costs.
On the side of the ORCC, we especially deplore the relaxation of standards in terms of compliance with the rules within the CRTC. It is recalled that in 2017, Ontario Commissioner Raj Shoan was expelled from the CRTC for not respecting the protocol on how meetings with industry representatives should be held.
Reinventing the CRTC
Critics of the CRTC have claimed in recent months in the English-language media that its recent behavior has severely eroded the confidence of the Canadian public in the federal body. Conflict of interest or not, the Council should be careful to wash more white than white, they say, given the importance of its role in a sensitive sector of the Canadian economy.
Bill C-11, which aims to regulate the activities of foreign tech giants in the country – including Amazon, Facebook and Google –, provides for its part to grant the CRTC even greater responsibilities which will force it to completely review its how to proceed, observes the full professor at the Public Law Research Center of the Faculty of Law of the University of Montreal Pierre Trudel.
“Bill C-11 contains provisions that will force it to address increasingly important issues,” he said. “He will have to develop a whole new expertise. He will necessarily have to reinvent himself and ensure that there is no appearance of conflict in his decisions. »
Given that the role of the CRTC is set to change over the coming months, the way it chooses its leaders should also evolve, believes the Montreal expert. It is hard to imagine a former vice-president of Google coming to lead the organization which must limit the scope of the Californian company in the country. “A leader who makes the public doubt does nothing to help the organization,” assures Pierre Trudel. Credibility with the public is the CRTC’s main weapon. »