Download This PaperExecutive Control of Administrative Action: 'Cabinet Appeals' and the CRTC
60 Pages Posted: 17 Apr 2014 Last revised: 2 May 2025
Date Written: April 14, 2014
Abstract
[First posted April 2014. Updated and revised April 2025.]
The provisions of the Telecommunications Act and the Broadcasting Act authorizing Cabinet appeals of decisions of the CRTC date to the inception of regulation of the telecommunications and broadcasting sectors and have played a defining role in the evolution of Canadian policy on some key issues affecting the two sectors. Despite this, there is an absence of basic information in readily accessible form on the frequency of Cabinet interventions in CRTC decision-making, on how many interventions are the result of petitions and how many are the result of Cabinet acting of its own motion, how the pattern of interventions has evolved over time under successive governments, and the nature of the issues on which Cabinet has intervened. The author has compiled lists of decisions in Cabinet appeals going back to 1908 in the case of telecommunications and 1968 in the case of broadcasting and extracted information that casts light on these issues.
The author then considers the place of Cabinet appeals in the regulatory regime. He argues that the status quo, which relies heavily on ex post Cabinet review of individual CRTC decisions, is seriously flawed. He presents some specific suggestions for reform of the Cabinet appeal process that involve limiting the range of issues on which Cabinet may intervene in telecommunications cases and adopting procedural safeguards, based on those that already apply in the issuing of Cabinet directions to the CRTC, and extending these to Cabinet appeals in both telecommunications and broadcasting cases.
Keywords: Telecommunications, Broadcasting, Regulation, CRTC, Administrative Law, Appeals, Executive Power, Cabinet Power
JEL Classification: K23, L50, L96, L98
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation