The Forum for Research and Policy in Communications (FRPC) has published a report examining the CRTC’s performance from 1969 to present, describing the regulatory body’s decision-making processes as “secretive and slow.”

The CRTC’s Performance, 1969-2025 looked at the commission’s role and performance based on three strategic objectives established by the Treasury Board in 2024 – transparency, accountability, and participation by the public in government decision-making.

Breaking down the CRTC’s own numbers, the FRPC report takes aim at the gradual reduction in hearings the public can actually attend – from dozens in the 1980s to a handful in the last decade, supplemented by private meetings with lobbyists (an average of 44 per year in the same period), which it says raises concerns about whose interests are being heard.

FRPC also reviewed CRTC resources, finding that from 1969-88, it issued nearly 31,000 decisions with an average staff of 380 people (some 80 decisions per staff person). From 2005-24, the commission issued just over 12,000 decisions, with an average staff of 460 full-time or equivalent persons, or roughly 27 decisions per staff person. Its 2025-26 Departmental Plan indicates a contingent of 717 full-time or equivalent staff, a 56% increase over the 2005-24 average.

“FRPC believes there are evidence-based grounds for serious concerns about the degree to which the CRTC is meeting TBS’ [Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat] 2024 principles of Transparency, Accountability and public Participation. The concerns centre around the fact that, in 2025, the CRTC is effectively unaccountable to Parliament and to Canadians due to: the non-transparency of the CRTC’s decision-making processes, the lack of any published objective evidence from the CRTC describing how it has implemented and is implementing Parliament’s broadcasting and telecommunications policies, its noncompliance with reporting requirements regarding CBC non-compliance which the Broadcasting Act mandates, its evasion of requirements for public hearings by redefining the term to mean both ‘appearing’ (public) and ‘non-appearing’ (non-public) processes, and its general lack of timeliness in its licensing, policy-making and alternative-dispute resolution processes,” the report states.

FRPC believes it’s time to undertake a review of the CRTC to determine “whether and how it has been and is implementing Parliament’s broadcasting and telecommunications policies, and whether it is meeting this responsibility in an efficient, effective and timely manner,” however the organization is emphatic that it is not suggesting the commission be replaced or dismantled.

“To the contrary, as the CRTC is empowered to change its own by-laws and its procedural rules, the CRTC can readily amend its processes to make them transparent and to facilitate its accountability – and can do so on its own motion and quickly,” it stated.

Recommendations

Among its recommendations, the Forum is suggesting the CRTC publish minutes of the meetings of the commission and its committees, including copies of any presentations made at meetings within one week; ensure that all of its decisions are signed by the commissioners who made the decisions (including those who dissented), and published, if necessary, by providing abbreviated summaries of the facts and outcomes; ensure decisions are published on matters resulting “in now-secret Letter Decisions”; and improve the timeliness of its decision-making by publishing decisions concerning broadcasting, telecom and online news applications within four months of receiving the applications, and policies within six months of initiating proceedings.

It is also asking the CRTC to publish annual – or more frequent – statistical updates on its implementation of Parliament’s broadcasting and telecom policies, convene an annual meeting of interested parties to respond to questions about data published by the CRTC, and invite comments every two years on the measures it uses to evaluate its performance.

Read an OP-ED from FRPC Executive Director Monica Auer on CARTT.ca, our sister web publication, here.