Source: Toronto Star

Carolynn Parsons, a woman with white hair and glasses pushed down her nose, appeared before the CRTC on Monday via a choppy web-link from Vancouver.

The chair of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, Konrad von Finckenstein, at first could not hear her. In a hearing room in Gatineau, Que., the baronial von Finckenstein waved at the webcam and pointed his pen at the microphone as the room burst into laughter.

"Can you hear me, Ms Parsons?" he asked repeatedly, before the connection was finally made and an illuminating conversation into the latest chapter of the so-called "fee for carriage" debate began.

Unlike previous CRTC hearings, in which broadcasters and cable and satellite providers growled back and forth, both claiming to represent the average Canadian consumer, these hearings that began Monday made consumers the priority, and gave them a soapbox.

Von Finckenstein asked Parsons about an additional fee for local signals, which the broadcasters want and the providers say they would pass on to consumers.

"Would that drive you away from cable?" he asked. "You are the very consumer we are concerned about."

"They have already raised their cable rates in the past year. Yes, I'm going to have to cut down on my television." Parsons said. "(But) I need my Internet."

These hearings follow ones in November which focused explicitly on the "fee-for-carriage" debate. The CRTC has stressed these new hearings will not impact its decision on the November proceedings, due early next year, but will form the basis of a CRTC report to the federal heritage minister.

The hearings continue today.

© Toronto Star