I've heard some opposition worries about the legal right to direct the CRTC by the minister. We've done some research that we hope takes into account the objections of the opposition.
What we did was ask where the Minister of Industry is given the authority to deliver a policy direction in the Telecommunications Act, and how it was actually applied in this case. The answer we got was that section 8 of the Telecommunications Act empowers the Governor in Council to issue the CRTC direction on broad policy matters with respect to the Canadian telecommunications policy objectives. The process is outlined in section 10 of the act.
On the whole idea of the forty sitting days and whether the forty sitting days are mandated as the maximum or minimum time designated for the House to consider the direction, subsection 10(6) of the act specifies that after the fortieth sitting day of Parliament, the Governor in Council may make the order, either as proposed or with any modifications.
If you want to look at the actual text of the policy direction as proposed by the telecom panel review, what we actually submitted was very similar; it is almost exactly what the experts have put forward.
With regard to the last time the CRTC actually got any direction, they've stated that it hasn't been since 1993--thirteen years ago--that they got any direction at all from the government. What this minister wants to do is help the CRTC--give them some guidance, give them some direction. Back in 1993, there was no VoIP, there were no BlackBerrys, there was no digital at all. These technologies weren't there. We've heard that it needs to be modernized.