The CRTC is Canada’s governing agency for Radio, Television and Communications. It was created in 1976, and frankly hasn’t evolved since then. The organization is in the pocket of Canada’s sole owner of 90% of our copper phone cable infrastructure, Bell Canada, and has repeatedly acted to limit innovation potentially problematic for, or competitive to, that company.
In theory, the CRTC should act to protect consumers, improve competition, and ensure that our country remains technologically progressive. In practice, its done the exact opposite for the past 10 years. The CRTC has crushed Bell’s DSL competition, stifled innovation, and enforced a status quo that is beginning to make Canada positively backwards compared to the rest of the world.
Wonder why the iTunes store or XBox Live Marketplace suck in Canada? Why we have no NetFlix? Why in an age where even my parents are interested in digital content, there’s almost none to be obtained legally in this country? The CRTC is the reason why.
The agency needs to be dissolved before things get even worse. Already we get half the service of our neighbours to the south, for twice the money. Don’t even think about comparing our country’s infrastructure to Japan’s — we might as well be using smoke signals!
If you’re Canadian, and you don’t realise how bad you have it, try making a phone call to Bell or Roger’s customer service departments — their duopoly in Ontario basically ensures that you won’t ever win.
If you’re Canadian, and you’re starting to get some inkling that maybe you’re getting screwed by your TelCo/Cable Provider, trust me: you are.
Sign the petition to dissolve the CRTC before things get even worse.