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APRIL 2000 PUBLIC WORKSHOPS

SUMMARY OF COMMENTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

1. "Our toll-free line: Is it useful? Do you use it?

All parties agreed that the toll-free line was a very useful tool, and should continue. There were, however, some recommendations for improvement:

Suggestions/Recommendations:

1. One should be able to use the toll-free line to be transferred directly to CRTC experts when that is required, not just to information officers.
   
2. The toll-free-line should be accessible to hearing-impaired people via TTY.
   
3. The line could be used for a more informal way of canvassing people's views on various topics, or conducting surveys - it is much less intimidating than the formal complaints process or the public hearing process.

2. Our public processes (public hearings, public notices): Are they "public" enough? What would encourage you to participate more often?

There was general agreement that public hearings are still very intimidating, for regular players as well as for the general public. However, it was felt that some progress had been made to make them more user-friendly, and some suggestions were made on how to continue improving the process:

Suggestions/Recommendations:

1. Notices should state clearly that teleconferencing is available, for ALL public hearings.
   
2. Public consultations, such as those held for the CBC renewal or ethnic broadcasting, are extremely useful and user-friendly, and should continue to be used for topics of interest to the general public.
   
3. At public hearings, intervenors should be accommodated more than they are now. They should be advised as early as possible of their appearance, and should be told of the exact day that they are likely to appear. More precise information would also be appreciated, such as AM or PM, but there was a general agreement that that may not always be possible, so a daily schedule would be sufficient.
   
4. Intervenors should be allowed to present oral views only, not necessarily written documents.
   
5. The public process is very burdensome on the telecommunications side, especially for small new competing telephone companies who don't have a regulatory affairs division, so it must be impossible to navigate for the general public. The Commission should make available some quick and dirty checklists on how to participate in processes, what to look for, what to expect at a public process, how to intervene, how complex or how simple the process can be, when the general public should get involved or not, etc.
   
6. There should be more citizens' forum type meetings, such as this one, to find out what people need to know about.
   
7. Notices of public hearing should make it clear that people should advise the Commission of any time or other accommodations they may need.
   
8. There should be some way of tracking the agenda so that you have a sense of when your are likely to appear. Perhaps a notice on the web site???
   
9. Documents should continue to be available in paper format, since a large number of people still have no access to computers.
   
10. There should be more "closure" on public processes: intervenors need to know that what they said was heard, went somewhere and had an impact.
    
11. Better use and communication of the "special representation" portion of public hearings could be done. No one knows about it.
    
12. CISC Process: The Commission should separate the policy discussions from the technical discussions in order to allow more people to participate for shorter periods of time.
    
13. There should be a more informal process as part of all telecom public proceedings, if the general public is going to participate. It has been done already in certain instances, such as the high cost proceeding, but should be used more often.
    
14. The Commission should report on the complaints it receives.
    
15. It should be made clearer to small players and key intervenors when it is appropriate to talk to Commission members and when it isn't.
    
16. Applicants or telephone companies should be required to submit executive summaries with all of their submissions.
    
17.   Cost-awards process:
    . Expedited process works very well.
    . Long-term cost awards process is way too long: sometimes, expert witnesses have to wait 2-3 years before being paid.
    . Perhaps there could be service standards: e.g. check will be sent within 4 months of decision, or 4 months of the end of the public process.
    
18.   Most associations don't intervene in cable public processes because there is no cost awarding - this needs to be resolved.
    
19.   People who send in interventions, or participate in hearings, should receive an acknowledgment so they know that their document has been received.
    
20. People don't realize that when they go to a public hearing to intervene, or come to one of these consultations, that their views are not considered as complaints. The process should be explained better, or simplified.
    
21. The Commission should accept telephone complaints on the broadcasting side.
    
22.   All parties who register for public processes on the telecom side should receive a list of registered parties so they know who else is involved.
    
23.   The Commission should indicate how decisions are reached - there should be more transparency about who takes the decisions.
    
24.   Community and campus radio stations:
    . The Commission should have held an oral process before it issued the new policy on Campus and community radio.
    . The community radio applications forms are still not available, even though the new policy was released 2 months ago; they should be made available immediately.
    . The Commission should have announced the community radio process on community radio stations and university newspapers.
    . There is absolutely no information on campus/community radio programming on the web site: there should be an easily identifiable section of the web site devoted to this, and it should provide all relevant information on how to apply for a developmental licence, including a link to the application form.
    

3. Our web site: Do you use it? Is it helpful in answering questions?

Comments on the web site ranged from "It's very very helpful" to " It's not very user-friendly". Those who were not "regular" clients agreed that the language and explanations on the site could be made much simpler and user-friendly - if you don`t know what you`re looking for, it`s very difficult to find it!! However, a large number of suggestions for improvements were made, and the following highlights the major ones only:

Suggestions/Recommendations:

A.  Decisions/Applications:

1. The web site should include more information, including: staff opinions, letter decision, resolutions of disputes between parties.
   
2. Everything should be included on the What's New, not just what the Commission decides to include. This would make it easier to find information for those who use the site regularly
   
3. All letter decisions should be numbered for easier reference
   
4. Part VII list of applications received (for telecommunications processes) is extremely helpful: List of applications received should be available for ALL types of applications, broadcasting and telecom
   
5. Electronic filing should be required, not just encouraged. Failing that, the Commission should make all documents available electronically by scanning those that are available on paper only.

B.  Web site structure:

6. There should be a "how-to" guide on how to travel on the web site - how to find what.
   
7. It is harder to find documents now that broadcasting and telecommunications sections have been merged. With one set of sequential numbers, it takes twice as long to search for documents:
   
8. In addition to the number, perhaps the letters B and T could also be added to differentiate between broadcasting and telecommunications documents
   
9. Perhaps keywords could be used in all documents to accelerate searches
   
10. Transcripts are very useful, but are "hidden" on the site. If you don't know they're there, you can't find them.

C.  General Information:

11. The Commission should use traffic on the FAQ's to determine what the demand is for what type of information.
    
12. There should be a glossary of broadcasting and telecommunications terms, to help people understand better.
    
13. The site should include biographies of former commissioners, for archival purposes.
    
14. To the general public, it is not easy to find information on the web site: for example, even though we were told that the report card was available on the site, we couldn't find it:
    
15. If you don't know what a public proceeding is, you won't know that that is where you go to find out about public hearings
    
16. Why is there no heading that says "decisions", or "public notices"
    
17. You can't find electronic interventions for broadcasting if you don't know where to look.
    
18. Adobe Acrobat format should be favored over html: html is not as useful when it comes to charts - they break up all over the page.
    
19. The web-site should be introduced into schools, so that children can get used to it at a young age.
    
20. The Queen's Printer (E-Print) web site could be used as a model for links to documents. They have thousands and thousands of links and they work very well.
    
21. The print size is often very small, and difficult to read, especially by people with visual impairments, or older people.
    
22. Web site is not in compliance with the Government of Canada guidelines for people with disabilities.
    
23. The web master doesn't respond to emails. A number of people have had to telephone because they were getting no response.
    
24. Forms should be provided in other software than FormFlow. If you don't have high speed access, FormFlow doesn't work.
    
25. The chronological sequencing of documents and searches is completely useless to members of the public and uninitiated people who have no idea of when things happened. Also, it doesn't allow for a logical overview of decisions on a particular issue.
    
26. Decisions include numbers and titles, but no information at all about the actual content of the decision - this makes searches extremely difficult.
    
27. "What's New" is very difficult to print on the French-language side of the site, even when you download it first into Word and then print it.
    
28. Hyperlinks are often inoperative or lead to the wrong documents. This should be monitored more closely.
    

4. Our public documents: Are they user-friendly?

All parties agreed that some efforts have been made to lighten up the language, but that in general public documents are still very complex and difficult to understand by the general public, and that more needs to be done.

1. All decisions should include a summary.
   
2. The language should be lightened up some more.
   
3. The Commission should announce preliminary views on policy issues, to provide the public with a better sense of what is at stake, and what it is exactly that they are being asked to comment on. Documents are very complex and it is often difficult to determine what the issues are.
   
4. Decisions should include a list of references at the end of the document, for research purposes.

5. How do you hear about us? Could we do a better job reaching you?

Suggestions/Recommendations:

1. The Commission should explain better who it is and what it does and what its constraints are.
   
2. The CRTC should operate a "CRTC Channel" on cable, so that it communicate all of its information at all times, for all publics.
   
3. The Commission should partner with consumer groups to hold public forums, or piggy-back on other forums.
   
4. The Commission should mail out its notices and decisions to potentially interested publics.
   
5. Public libraries could be used to communicate notices, decisions, and other CRTC information.
   
6. The Commission should partner with university libraries who could be used as a document centre and involve students to help them understand our processes.
   
7. Commission should look at the ASC (Advertising Standards Council) 's method of advertising its processes across the country. Perhaps it could adopt some of their tactics.
   
8. The Commission does not make good enough use of volunteer organisations: it should find a way of linking up with central networks of organisations (e.g. the BC Environmental Network) and let them do the work .
   
9. The web site could be used for real-audio outreach programs to specific communities or groups.
   
10. The Commission could ask its regulated companies to hold workshops for stakeholder groups , as does the B.C. Utilities Commission.
    
11. There should be an email-listing that people could just register for in order to get public documents.
    
12. There should be one name and one telephone number that you can call when you want to find out what happened to your letter or your complaint or whatever you sent in. Sometimes you feel like your document fell between the cracks and no one knows about it.
    
13. The Commission should identify one person that you can call when you want to file an application, or an intervention, and this person could hold your hand through the whole process. This would help small players, as well as people who may want to get involved but don't know how and are intimidated by the process.
    
14. The Commission could ask questions of the public on specific topics, through newspaper ads or its web site, and then get them to telephone their answers in using the 1-800 line.
    
15. The complaints process should be clearly explained to associations such as the Canadian Hard of Hearing Association (CHHA), perhaps by including information in their newsletters.
    
16. The CRTC should ask telephone companies and large broadcasting companies for plans and suggestions on how to better reach the public, and involve the public in the processes.
    
17. The Commission could get a list of all regional municipalities' newsletters and send short blurbs with the 1-800 number for general information to the public.
    
18. CBC could be asked to broadcast PSA's occasionally that would give the CRTC's 1-800 number and other general information on how to contact it.
    
19. The Saskatchewan Daily Newspaper Association could perhaps help in communicating out.
    
20. Perhaps the Commission should focus its energies on organisations and stakeholder groups, rather than the general public, since it will never be able to reach everyone and everyone may not be interested in CRTC issues.
    
21. There should be more communications activities regionally. Many people don't even know that there are regional offices and regional commissioners.
    
22. Newspaper ads should have more "pizzazz"; most of the time, if you do notice them, you don't understand what they're talking about so you don't pay attention.
    
23. More attention should be paid to remote and underserved communities: they are the ones with the most service problems, yet most of them don't even know the CRTC exists. Perhaps some form of outreach program??
    
24. Telephone numbers provided on the web site and in public documents should include area codes.
    
25. Information provided in telephone billing inserts often looks like advertising - perhaps that's why a lot of people don't read them.
    
26. The Commission should use television and radio public service announcements to reach its clients. There are a very large number of people in the country who can't read.
    
27. Our fax cover sheets should be redesigned, and should include our email addess and our 1-800 number.
    
28. There should be more factsheets on consumer competitive information: e.g. consumers may not understand that department stores are simply resellers for telephone companies.
    
29. The Commission should promote its services and its regional offices in newspaper ads.

6. Other issues:

A. Services for the Hearing Impaired:

A large number of representatives from the Canadian Hard of Hearing Association (CHHA), and other provincial associations for the deaf or hard of hearing appeared at most of the workshops in order to express their concerns over the following issues:

1. Factsheets refer to TDD rather TTY. This should be changed.
   
2. The 1-800 line should be accessible by TTY users.
   
3. The quality and reliability of closed-captioning on English-language television is very poor:

• News programs are partially captioned only, the news clips rarely are
• Captioning is intermittent: it comes and goes during the same program
• Sometimes words are unintelligible, garbled; grammar and spelling are often poor, and sometimes the speed is too fast, and words are missing, etc.
  The content often does not correspond to the image.
• If there is a problem while watching a program, there's nowhere to call to get the problem fixed
• French-language captioning is even worse: in the absence of conditions of licence, it is almost non-existent, and all of the subtitling happens between 6:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. Radio-Canada has made some progress but it is still insufficient, and represents only 30% of programming.

4. All children's programming should be captioned
   
5. You never know who is responsible: you call the TV station, it blames the cable company. You call the cable company, they claim they have nothing to do with it.
   
6. Nobody seems to be monitoring the situation: the Commission should monitor the quality of closed-captioning, and impose quality standards.
   
7. Stations are not meeting their conditions of license concerning 100% of captioning, but the Commission is not monitoring the situation: it should monitor and discipline those that are in non-compliance.
8. The Association officially requested to have an opportunity to make a presentation to and have a discussion with the Commission, to present its mandate and its issues.
   
9. The CRTC should encourage Canadian film producers to include captioning in all of their productions.
   
10. The Commission should force telephone companies to install TTY's in public places such as malls.

B. CIUT-FM Control Issue:

A group of representatives appeared to express their concern over the change in control at U of T radio station CIUT-FM. The major concern was that there had been no public process before the CRTC approved the interim management of the station/

Recommendation:

• CRTC should hold a public hearing, or some type of public forum, to allow ALL parties to express their view on this issues

C. Miscellaneous Issues:

1. Factsheet on complaints (What Concerns you concerns us.) doesn't state clearly that tapes can't be ordered after 28 days.
   
2. When is the Commission coming out with its decision on Inside Wiring?
   
3. Privacy: why does the consumer have to dial *67 in order to protect his or her identity when dialing? Why is the onus on the consumer, not the telephone company?
   
4. Why does the consumer have to pay a call blocking fee in order to stop receiving calls from telemarketing companies?
   
5. Television stations, such as CIVT-TV (Vancouver) should announce their cable channel as well as their off-air channel when they do station identifications, otherwise it is confusing to the viewer.
   
6. The transcripts for the 21 February Vancouver public hearing took about one month before it appeared on the web site. Why?
   
7. The Commission should continue to look after the interests of the French-language minority populations outside of Quebec.
   
8. Perhaps all French-language services should be regrouped and offered together for one rate to consumers.
   
9. The CRTC should develop impact studies to assess the impact of its decisions on the Canadian public.
   
10. The CBC and Radio-Canada should represent regional interests, not just national ones.
    
11. The Commission should revise its application kits.
    
12. Service from Commission staff is always great. Calls are usually returned very quickly, and they are always willing to help and provide whatever information is needed.
    
13. The CRTC should ensure that Canadian programming reflects the racial diversity of Canadians.
    
14. With concentration of ownership, there is a concern that local programming may disappear completely.

Revised: 2000-04