Government to extend Ian Scott’s term as CRTC chairman while they look for replacement

OTTAWA — CRTC chairman Ian Scott will stay at the helm of the broadcast and telecom regulator for another four months.

Scott’s four-year term as chairman ends Friday. A government source told the National Post Scott will remain in the job while the Liberal government continues its search for a new chair.

The source said the government is taking the time necessary to find the right person for the job.

The CRTC will be taking on new responsibilities under two internet-regulation bills introduced by the Liberals and focused on regulating digital platforms like Facebook, Google and Netflix. Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez has said he wants to see the CRTC “modernized” to meet these new responsibilities.

It would have been “irresponsible” to leave the CRTC to hold proceedings and issue decisions this fall without a chairperson, the government source said.

Under Bills C-11 and C-18, the CRTC will be in charge of both developing and implementing new regulations for online streaming services and overseeing news revenue sharing between online platforms and news publishers.

The government is looking for someone who can lead an organization through change, has experience in telecom, broadcasting or digital media, who has “digital credibility” and is a consumer advocate.

That person will be difficult, and maybe impossible, to find, experts told the National Post in July. The controversial Bill C-11, the Online Streaming Act, has divided those who say it’s necessary to make sure web giants contribute to Canadian culture and those who are worried it gives the CRTC too much power, including over user-generated content.

Former CRTC vice-chair Peter Menzies said he’s “not even sure it’s possible” to find a candidate who has credibility with both groups.

Scott’s term extension comes a week after he was cleared in a conflict of interest case involving Bell CEO Mirko Bibic. Scott, who had a lengthy career in telecom before being named CRTC chair, was photographed meeting Bibic for a beer in an Ottawa pub, shortly after large telecoms asked the CRTC to reverse a 2019 decision lowering wholesale rates.

The Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner said the relationship between Bibic and Scott “could not be considered one that falls within the definition of friendship within the meaning” of the Conflict of Interest Act. Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion said that despite “having worked in the same industry for 20 years, their relationship is exclusively professional.”

In addition to finding a new CRTC chair, the government will have to navigate the danger of regulatory capture – a phenomenon when regulators act in favour of the industry they regulate instead of the general public, and a long-standing concern among critics of the CRTC.

While the federal government typically chooses individuals with experience in telecom or broadcasting when it makes appointments to the CRTC, “all that does is bring in people who are inevitably, from day one, in a conflict of interest,” a source with extensive knowledge of the CRTC told the National Post.

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