Mr. Speaker, it is a great honour to address you in this House for the first time. I have listened closely to the throne speech and the various statements from the members of this House. My most recent experience was that of an average Canadian rather than that of a lifelong politician. I am encouraged by the process, the skill and the passion of members of this House in exercising their duties to their constituents and our fellow Canadians.
I was pleased to see in the throne speech that there was some recognition given to the impact which the technological revolution and the information age is having on our society and the world. These pressures are pervasive in all walks of life. The impact of these new technologies is changing the way we relate to one another.
Time and distance restrictions to communication have been almost eliminated. Information and entertainment choices are exploding. Ideas and opportunities fill the information highway and they are constantly increasing. This creativity is pushing the highway to new limits in a demand driven expansion.
Canadians understand that this is a global phenomenon. It is a pervasive backdrop constantly present as we enter the 21st century. No effective barrier can be erected to separate oneself from its impact, not on a personal level, not provincially and most certainly not nationally.
The information and communication explosion can only be embraced and allowed to shape itself in a manner which meets the needs of Canadians in order to realize the great potential that it offers. The shaping and application of these information technologies will best serve Canadians if we each have input into the process through an open, and to use an oft repeated word from the throne speech, and innovative marketplace.
A government attempting to package and overmanage how Canadians participate in a global information explosion will at best deliver very costly, mediocre results. In the throne speech there seemed to be some recognition of the need to allow Canadians to participate more fully in a global information age. As the Leader of the Official Opposition might say, there seemed to be some bone there.
Unfortunately when I look at the actions of this government there appears to be a cancer in this particular bone. It is the cancer of the heavily bureaucratic and excessive control tactics of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, the CRTC. Here is another government body whose actions have the exact opposite effect to the fine sounding words of the throne speech. Say one thing, do another, that is what it looks like to me.
The throne speech calls for innovation and stimulation of the entrepreneurial spirit in Canada. Meanwhile that commission, the CRTC, has an implied stated agenda to create large players and protect these large players from competition. Those entrepreneurial innovators who have the intestinal fortitude to apply for a licence or approval will be forced to play in a game where the rules are frequently changed. But you only find that out after you have lost.
The entrepreneurs the government says it wants to help have been required to spend up to $1 million to complete this regulatory marathon and submit literally thousands of pages demanded by the application process. Then they are told “We do not think your ideas will work, so you will not get a chance to try them”. After being kicked in the stomach a few times like this, the smart players say “No more, thanks”.
The CRTC does this in pursuit of what it calls sustainable competition. The innovators dragged through this process have come to recognize that sustainable competition really means market control through government selection and restriction.
I wonder what is meant by the new term creative partnerships. Those chosen as partners will be the blessed ones and the entrepreneurial interests of others will be left at a competitive disadvantage. This does not serve the best interests of Canadian consumers.
The approach of the CRTC scares away quality entrepreneurs and risk takers which this government states it wants to attract. The result of this approach is that government selected information networks and broadcasters appear to be chosen more because of lobby efforts and who you know instead of the energy and innovation they bring to the marketplace.
The throne speech makes reference to the government's intention to promote trade in Canadian culture and support Canadian culture at home. Again, it is difficult to believe this when due to the inaction of regulatory delays over the past years, 300,000 Canadians who wanted direct to home satellite service chose to access the only service available at the time via the grey market. Now it seems that the CRTC culture police want to treat them as criminals even before the courts have made a final ruling.
This government says it wants to support Canadian culture. Its commission approves a Playboy channel and disallows a faith channel which was clearly desired by a number of Canadians. All of this while publicly demanding Canadian content and diversity in programming. It seems like more of the say one thing, do another approach of this government.
I do not think Canadians want the CRTC making these decisions for us based on the CRTC's own political and ideological biases. The cultural engineering approach of the CRTC selects winners and losers rather than allowing Canadian consumers to have the benefit of a truly competitive marketplace. Such a marketplace would provide the information products Canadians want with the best service for the least cost.
Just as leisure suits and lava lamps have had their day, and I got rid of mine, their contemporary, the CRTC, must also be re-examined for its relevance and desirability. It is now doing more harm than good.
We see that the actions of the CRTC and its cultural police conflict with the stated goals of this government to facilitate innovation and entrepreneurship. We see that the costs to business, consumers and taxpayers are excessive and unnecessary. We see that under the guise of protecting Canadian culture, it is attempting to define and impose it. In addition, it pours regulatory cold water on the information highway's entrepreneurial flame.
We see that with the reality of today, the current CRTC is obsolete. It costs far too much and delivers far too little. The time is long overdue to move away from protectionist policies and toward those that allow Canadian products to compete in the global market. We only protect what is weak. That which is strong can be promoted. In the right regulatory and business environment, Canadians have no need to fear global competition. Control and manipulation by government is what we should fear.
I ask the government to listen to industry and consumers and remove excessive bureaucracy and the regulatory quagmire within the communications industry so that Canadians can set the standard for the world during the communications century.