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Speech
Opening remarks
by Françoise Bertrand
Chairperson, Canadian Radio-television
and Telecommunications Commission
at the 30 March 1998 Public Hearing
Saint John, New Brunswick
March 30, 1998
(CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY)
Good morning ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to this public hearing. My
name is Francoise Bertrand, Chair of the CRTC. I also have the pleasure of
chairing the Panel of Commissioners who will be considering the one appearing
and a number of other non-appearing applications on the agenda of this
proceeding. Before we get underway, I would like to introduce to you the
Panel's other Members.
On my immediate right is Charles Bélanger, the Commission's Vice-Chair
of Broadcasting. To his right is Commissioner Andrée Wylie. On my
immediate left, and a familiar face to many of you, is David Colville.
Commissioner Colville serves both as the CRTC's Vice-Chair, Telecommunications
and as Regional Commissioner for the Atlantic Region. On his left is a relatively
new, but very welcome addition to our ranks, Commissioner Andrew Cardozo.
Also present this morning, and assisting us as members of the Commission's
staff are our Hearing Manager Lynne Lafrance; and Legal Counsel Carolyn Pinsky.
Brien Rodger will serve as Secretary of the Hearing.
The Commission's Mission is: "to ensure that Canadian communications contribute
fairly and equitably to Canada's economic, social and cultural prosperity
through regulation, supervision and public dialogue". Yesterday, in furtherance
of that Mission, we held a "town hall" forum here in Saint John to discuss,
with both the users and the providers of the services we regulate, the many
complex communications issues now before us and the effort that will be required
to deal with them in a successful, positive manner. We are confident that
the open dialogue encouraged at such meetings, and we will be holding others
like them across the country, will serve to bring the Commission, the regulated
communications industries and the public closer together, in greater appreciation
of the particular needs and preoccupations of each, and in greater understanding
of our common interests and objectives.
Today, we commence the more formal, but no less interesting, aspect of our
business in Saint John. Specifically, we begin the oral phase of our public
process dealing with an application filed under both the Broadcasting Act
and the Telecommunications Act by The New Brunswick Telephone Company, Limited,
or NBTel. The applicant has requested a licence for a broadcasting distribution
undertaking to serve the province of New Brunswick.
NBTel's application and its consideration by the Commission is very much
a precedent. It is the very first application to be filed by a telephone
company, directly and on its own behalf, for a licence to carry on a competitive
broadcasting distribution undertaking on a full-time basis, that is to say,
other than as a technical or market trial. The scope of the application is
equally significant in that it proposes a single, regional, wireline service
providing a full range of French- and English-language broadcasting and other
services that would be made available, over time, to no less than the population
of an entire province. The filing of this application is also evidence, if
such evidence were needed, of the swift, expansive and ongoing changes occurring
within the communications industry in this country and, in particular, of
the convergence of broadcasting and telecommunications technologies.
The Commission's Vision statement foresees an environment in which existing
and new services of high quality and diversity become increasingly available
to Canadians, promoted and fostered by competitive and socially-responsible
communications industries. Consistent with that objective, as early as last
June Canadian telcos were free to apply for cable licenses, while local telephone
markets were opened up to new entrants including cable companies. We have
promoted additional competition in the distribution of programming services
by licensing undertakings that are now successfully marketing their products
to consumers using such technologies as MMDS and Direct-to-Home satellite.
The filing of NBTel's application thus appears to be but one more step in
this direction. The Commission intends to carefully examine this, and other
similar applications that will undoubtedly follow, with a view of determining
how best these proposals will serve the public interest.
Now, a few housekeeping details. We expect to complete the oral phase of
this hearing today and we might decide to continue on into the evening. In
order to make the most effective use of the time available, we would ask
the applicant to limit its presentation to a maximum of 10 minutes.
This will be followed by questions put to NBTel by myself and my colleagues.
We have three interveners who have requested an opportunity to present their
views concerning NBTel's application. They will be allowed a maximum of
10 minutes to do so, followed again by questions from members of the
panel. After that, the applicant will be invited to present a ten-minute
oral reply to the interventions. As the last stage of this process, all
interveners of record will be permitted to file final written arguments with
the Commission by 6 April, and NBTel may submit final written reply
by no later than 14 April.
The Commission's decisions on this and on the non-appearing applications
will be issued expeditiously, following our deliberations later this spring.
As always, the written interventions that have been filed with respect to
these applications will be given the same consideration by the Commission
as those that are to be presented orally to the Commission, either later
today or tomorrow. I believe we are now ready to begin. To all, a good hearing.
Mister/Madame Secretary, would you please introduce the members of NBTel's
panel.
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Contact: CRTC Communications Branch, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0N2
Tel.: (819) 997-0313, TDD:
(819) 994-0423, Fax: (819) 994-0218
This document is available in alternative format upon request.
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