I think we have quite a few tools in the tool box right now, so we don't need to reinvent the wheel. We need to use what we have more effectively.
Look at the Telecommunications Act and the Broadcasting Act, for example. I think they're actually quite usable. There are sections of them that I would like to see used more. For example, two sections in the Telecommunications Act and Broadcasting Act respectively—section 4 in each, if I remember correctly—basically say that these two pieces of legislation shouldn't talk to one another. That doesn't make any sense, so get rid of section 4.
In the Telecommunications Act, sections 27 and 36 are basically the cornerstones of common carriage. One is an anti-discrimination principle in section 27 on the basis of price. Section 36 is on editorial control and influence over the meaning of contents that flow over networks. Section 36 hasn't been used except for one case since the 1990s, as far as I know. It was used in a small case in the 2000s. We ought to use it a lot more.
If we use this idea of separating the medium from the message, the carriage from the content, and we let the big players have their content, we can say that they have to buy access to the pipes on the same terms that everybody else does, instead of using them and saying to them, “Look, you own the pipes, but because we have this grand idea of what we want Canada to be, could you please gerrymander the use of your pipes to kind of fix the outcome in favour of Canada and Canadian content?”
This is a huge problem. We should open up the pipes for all Canadians to use on non-discriminatory terms.