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Speech
Towards New Information Technologies:
For Increased Public Participation
Notes for an address
by Françoise Bertrand
Chairperson, Canadian Radio-television
and Telecommunications Commission
to the Toronto Cercle canadien
Toronto, Ontario
April 21, 1998
(CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY)
Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. I am delighted to be here with you
today.
I lived here in the 1970s, and I know that there are certain challenges inherent
to being a francophone in Toronto.
Those who have chosen to live here undoubtly can appreciate this dynamic
city. However, it is probably difficult to live daily in French.
I can well imagine how much you treasure your French-language radio and
television services — Radio-Canada, TFO and TV5. They give you a window
onto the francophone world, and access to the world in your own language.
Furthermore, with the exception of TV-5, whose mission is international,
these networks offer you both local and regional service. They tell you about
what's going on your community, the weather and local entertainment. They
offer you relationships with on-air personalities such as Pierre Granger,
Adrien Cantin, Claude Soucy and our host today, Véronique Marie Kaye.
But however excellent these services may be, their number is modest compared
with the number of English-language services available to you, or even compared
to the number of French-language services available in the Quebec market.
Therefore, you must have been pleased to hear last month's speaker, Alain
Gourd, tell you that new technologies will soon bring you a much broader
choice of French-language services.
This proliferation of your options in French-language services illustrates
exactly the kind of expanded choice we at the CRTC want to facilitate in
the years to come.
Like many other regulatory agencies, we have had to evolve to deal with a
rapidly changing world. We are at the dawn of the true information age, and
it's up to us to ensure that the public interest is served. This is a great
challenge — but also a significant responsibility.
At the CRTC, we're quite passionate about this. But we can understand that
not everyone can be as enthusiastic as we are. Even though our process is
entirely public, we know it's rather intimidating for citizens to come before
a quasi-judicial body, to be questioned by experts, and to give their opinions
on complex, and sometimes highly technical issues.
Many people feel as if they have no real grasp of what's going on; nor do
they feel they can influence such a rapid and radical process of change.
This feeling is bolstered by a certain discourse, which says we can't stop
progress. This discourse says that we have no choice but to adopt the same
regulatory principles for all the possible uses of the converging technologies:
whether it's the telephone industry, the audiovisual landscape, information
technology networks or the Internet.
It therefore follows immediately that if, as its proponents believe, you
can't regulate something like electronic commerce, then we have to deregulate
everything else. To us, this analysis appears simplistic and far too hasty.
My reaction is to say: slow down! Since when is regulation driven by technology
rather than by the uses we make of it?
Today, as we build the information highway, it's difficult to see the future
clearly. That's why we must have the courage to ask questions if we want
to build the future.
How can we best harness these forces to serve our best interests and our
prosperity? How can we make sure they support those who are having a difficult
time with the transition? It's important to distinguish clearly between the
brilliant potential of these technologies and the real-world
impact on jobs and the social fabric. Consumers, entrepreneurs,
professionals, business people, citizens... everyone will have to seize the
opportunity to benefit fully from this new universe.
New technologies allow us reorganize our lives, at home, at work, in health
and education domains and entertainment. This historic role reversal may
have unforeseen consequences. Will it someday be possible truly to live in
French in Toronto, through telecommuting, electronic commerce or telelearning?
And what does the CRTC have to do with all this? At times, I read in the
papers that the Commission is obsolete. I don't believe a word of it. I do
believe that the CRTC must adapt to the new environment by changing its culture,
its approaches and its operational methods if it is to better serve consumers,
citizens, businesses — in short, the public interest.
Which is why we published last September our Vision documents that demonstrates
how we contribute to a world-class calibre communications environment with
a distinct Canadian presence, in the public interest.
Our approach is to let industry regulate itself, and to intervene if necessary.
The Commission seeks to foster opportunities for businesses to become truly
competitive in the new environment. All this, including the public interest.
The United Nations says Canada is the world's healthiest society in human
terms. But for some reason, as Canadians, we are in the pernicious habit
of refusing to see what underlies the social peace and prosperity that we
have, despite the imperfections of our society.
For example, we seem to take for granted a certain justice and integrity
in our public interest processes. This is a mistake. If we want to enjoy
a certain standard of living, we have to be vigilant, always.
Imagine for just a moment that you had to call an operator sitting in an
Alabama call centre to order telephone or cable service. But would she speak
French?
Or imagine that broadcasting licences were given out on the basis of who
you know, instead of through a rigorous public process.
You can therefore appreciate the important role the CRTC plays in elaborating,
in guiding and in the integrity of the social, political and economic fabric
of our society.
Telecommunications are becoming the very infrastructure of our economy.
Broadcasting is essential to our social, cultural and political
personality. New media will define the transactional world of the
future, and will have a profound influence on our identity, our lifestyle,
and on jobs.
At the CRTC, we have a responsibility to learn and to understand this new
environment. Without denying the inescapable effects of globalization, we
must understand that we do have the means to decide, at least to some extent,
how we will approach the future, what perspective we will bring to it, and
what our fundamental values are.
Concretely, I like to use the image of a hockey game to be played in a global
arena:The first period was the end of the monopoly of the telecommunications
companies and the opening up of our markets to competition. The second period
is convergence, the fusion of telecommunications, broadcasting and informatics.
The third period, and the puck has just been dropped, is the Internet, with
its new technological platforms and content.
All of us will be affected by the match. No one can escape the consequences.
Consumers, business people, professionals, citizens... all have to adapt,
or even reinvent themselves. So will the CRTC.
A public institution like ours has to evolve to keep it relevant, and to
protect the public interest. It must be competent and realistic. But most
importantly, it must also exercise leadership.
This leadership must rest on a foundation of in-depth work:
First, we must know our subject matter thoroughly through research.
Then, we must learn by listening to the views and concerns of all the players
who make up the industries we regulate: businesses, broadcasters, distributors.
Finally, we must know the citizens of this country, their needs, their opinions
and their will. We have the obligation to do everything in our power to listen
to them.
We are aware that the complexity and technicality of our subject matter make
it difficult to approach.
Our process is public from beginning to end, and we work constantly to improve
it while learning from experience. We will maintain the integrity of our
quasi-judicial process while multiplying contact points and opportunities
to meet the public. We will open up our process and make our issues easier
to understand.
For example, we recently asked New Brunswick residents to meet us informally
the day before our hearings in Saint John. They could sign up until the day
before our arrival. We talked with them, but mostly, we listened. It was
an enriching experience for us, which we intend to repeat in the months to
come around the country.
For those of you — more and more of you, in fact — who have Internet
access, our Web site has become more accessible and more interesting. If
you surf there, you'll find our new Vision and work plan, as well as a large
database in which you can locate the information you need, quickly and easily.
I encourage you to visit it and use it, and to let us know if you have any
comments or suggestions, because we're always trying to improve it.
Let's talk now about access. If the information highway and new media are
to bring economic dividends, it is obvious that citizen-consumers and potential
clients must have access to them. The absence of such access could even create
significant social tension.
For the CRTC, it is very important that Canadians continue to play a major
role in the provision of services and infrastructures which will enable us
to communicate interactively with each other.
How will we guarantee this access at a reasonable cost?
This is exactly why we opened up the telecommunications industry to competition.
The ultimate objective of this decision was to encourage innovation to establish
a broadband infrastructure which will give every Canadian household and business
access to the information highway. This will allow for true convergence as
these new platforms give birth to new forms of expression. In this sense,
the emergence of new technologies has a direct impact on content.
If 1997 was the year the CRTC finished the long process of implementing
competition in local telephony, 1998 will certainly be the year to review
our works in broadcasting.
As consumers, we are more and more demanding. We want more choice, higher
quality, greater variety and, of course, user-friendliness. We are ready
for the customized products that digital technology will soon offer us.
For Toronto francophones with Internet access, it's suddenly possible to
have easy access to information and content in French – whether it's
CRTC decisions, government services, publications, radio and soon television
of the francophone world.
We must seize the opportunities that new technologies offer to bridge the
cultural imperative and economic prosperity. I dream of seeing our creators
and our businesses forming an industrial and cultural cluster so strong that
it will meet our own need to see ourselves and to talk to each other, as
well as shining in the global market.
This is the ideal we must achieve.
At the CRTC, we never lose sight of our obligation to ensure that Canadian
voices, in all their diversity and their beauty, resonate and flourish.
This is why, in late September, we will hold hearings on Canadian programming.
We will review our Canadian content regulation in depth. This process will
lay the foundation for the next sets of hearings: on new specialty channels,
on licence renewals for the CBC, in March of 1999, and after that, for CTV.
In November, we will hold public hearings on new media, the framework for
which will be announced in a public notice in May.
We remain convinced of the importance of high quality original programming,
of its renewable appeal and its growth potential. In the information highway
age, that will be truer than ever.
I hope you will examine our public agenda, and that you will take the time
to give us your opinion on these important issues.
The CRTC is committed to play a vital role in the evolution of our audiovisual
universe. We are passionate about this. This is because we are convinced
that the 21st century economy will be profoundly influenced by the content
available through new information technologies, and that the key
to success, not to mention profit, lies in relationships based on dialogue,
a taste for risk, innovation, entrepreneurship and increasing choice and
voices for citizens.
My ambition is to make the CRTC an ally in this trip on the information highway.
But I ask all of you to be our interactive and engaged fellow-travelers.
If we can do that together, we can build an exciting future for all Canadians
to share.
Thank you.
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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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