Federal telecommunications regulator chief not violating conflict of interest laws: Watchdog


CRTC Chair Ian Scott is seen before attending the House Standing Committee on Industrial Technology in Ottawa on July 25, 2022. (Canadian Press/Adrian Wilde)

The chairman of Canada’s Radio, Television and Telecommunications Commission violated conflict of interest laws when he held a meeting while a major telecom operator filed files with regulators, according to the federal ethics watchdog. did not.

One of the scrutinized meetings was in December 2019 at an Ottawa pub with Ian Scott, head of CRTC, and Mirko Bivic, senior executive at BCE Inc.

A week before the meeting, Bell Canada filed with the CRTC to review and change the Telecommunications Order issued in August 2019, and in May 2021 Scott submitted a panel decision to change the 2019 order. I participated in.

According to the report, Scott’s relationship with Bell executives did not meet the definition of friendship outlined in the law, and the relationship was “exclusively professional.”

The matter was referred by the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner to the Conflicts of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion in April of this year.

Whether the conference raises “reasonable concerns of prejudice” is another case before the Federal Court of Appeals, Dion said in the report.

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