From the “why the hell didn’t someone think of this sooner” department, comes the news that a online petition has been started to demand that the CRTC be dissolved:
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) was created for the purpose of ensuring broadcasting and telecommunications systems serve the Canadian public and ensure that Canadians have a wide variety of options to create and view works of media or communicate across the country and the entire world.
We, the undersigned, believe that the CRTC has become a burden on the Canadian public and are failing to perform their duties in the interest of the Canadian public and that of a fair and unbiased telecom policy.
In the last 3 years, we have seen the CRTC give undue preference in the interest of commercial entities and their preference for traditional business models over competing models that would create competition and help ensure that new business models can be created to entice and prosper original Canadian productions.
Given some of the recent decisions that the CRTC has made, such as their tax Local Television Improvement Fee, and giving Bell Canada the ability to do usage based billing on their wholesale DSL customers, it’s hard to argue for keeping them around.
As I write this there are 1419 signatures on this petition and according to this CBC story, the goal is to get to at least 10,000. According to the creator of this petition, this is what needs to happen:
[Mike] Lerner told CBC News the government needs to replace the current regulator with a body that is staffed by people who are in touch with the new technology and competition models being introduced by the internet.
“You need some people who have experience with telecom but you also need some people who understand the new types of competition. They just don’t have any experience in that field,” he says.
I couldn’t agree more. Plus the fact that the CRTC is staffed with ex-telco execs who rubber stamp everything that Bell Canada wants likely doesn’t help matters much either.
So if you’re Canadian, sign this petition. It’s the only way that Canada will get out of the technological backwater that it finds itself in when it comes to Internet access. Plus while you’re at it, you should do the following as well:
- Find your local MP and tell them why the CRTC sucks.
- Then go to the Heritage Minister (The CRTC reports to this ministry) and the Industry Minister (The CRTC also reports here) and tell them why the CRTC sucks
- Tell your friends about this petition via blogs, Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, e-mail, smoke signal.
It’s time for some change. Real change. Change we can believe in. It’s time for the CRTC to go and be replaced with something a lot more forward thinking and arms length from the telecommunications industry.