We got into the whole question of machinery in our paper because we felt you can't just say what the issues are; you have to sort of point to a way to resolve them. So you had on the table a suggestion of a royal commission from the CRTC chair at the time. We feel that's a little bit of an outdated concept for this.
We looked at the information highway task force that was in place a few years ago, and arguably it did its job of kind of educating Canadians and getting some initiatives under way, but we thought in this case, because things happen so quickly, and in view of particularly the British experience, where they managed to wrap the whole thing up within nine months.... They appointed somebody--and it all comes down to the key person you appoint to really lead it--who put a panel together and had deliberations. They used the media to get feedback from people, so everybody chimed in on it, had an interim report that got feedback, and they actually made a lot of changes, particularly related to the cultural area.
So we thought something of that kind could work, but there are many ways of making it work both within a system like Canada's and also within the particular circumstances of when our Parliament and government is in session. But that's the way we thought it had to be--nimble, quick, get in, expertise brought in--quite all-encompassing in it's purview, because all these issues are so interrelated. But at the same time we're not trying to boil the ocean. You know you can't, as we consultants say, try to do everything at once. But you had to set down what things you wanted to do immediately and what things were left to other processes. For example, you get traffic shaping or the net neutrality issue, which is.... We put it on the table, but since then it's largely been dealt with in Canada, to some considerable positive effect, from what most people think, and ahead of a lot of other countries.
So on that particular issue, we have to watch it, and there will be evolutions. As John was mentioning, you've got the gatekeeper question in there. That has to be--on the cultural side--looked at, but there are things that we could move on to. So a nimble, quick panel. That's how we recommend it.