GATINEAU – CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais announced Friday that he has created a new position within the Commission: Chief Consumer Officer.
It’s first CCO will be Barbara Motzney, who is currently director general, border policy and international affairs at Public Safety Canada. Prior to joining Public Safety, she was director general of copyright policy at Canadian Heritage where she lead the introduction of two Bills to modernize Canada’s copyright legislation, and virtual and in-person national consultations on the topic.
“I am pleased to announce the creation of the position of Chief Consumer Officer and the appointment of Barbara Motzney to this position,” said Blais, in the announcement. Motzney will assume her duties starting October 1.
The CCO’s role is to better understand the concerns of Canadian consumers and bring them to the Commission’s attention during the decision-making process, reads the CRTC announcement. This will be achieved by leading research activities on consumer issues to identify trends and best practices, including those in other jurisdictions. The chief consumer officer will head the Consumer Affairs and Strategic Planning sector within the Commission.
This change means a few organizational alterations were also made within the Consumer Affairs and Strategic Planning sector, formerly known as Policy Development and Research (PDR). Officially, the title of the executive director of PDR has been changed to Chief Consumer Officer, says a CRTC staff memo. Stephen Delaney will be the acting CCO until October 1.
The title of director general of convergence and social policy will be changed to director general of consumer affairs. Steven Harroun will continue to assume this position in an acting capacity, adds the memo.
Reporting to the director general of consumer affairs will be the director of consumer policy, a new position which will be held by Masood Qureshi. Qureshi has served as senior manager of telecommunications enforcement since 2010 and prior to joining the CRTC, was a senior advisor with Industry Canada’s Strategic Telecommunications Policy group and led the Competition Bureau’s Telecom Sector Team.
Celia Millay will serve as a manager within this group and report to the director of consumer policy, reads the memo.
The position of director of social and consumer policy will now become the position of director of social policy, reporting to the director of general of consumer affairs. Nanao Kachi will continue to assume this position in an acting capacity.
Finally, the positions of director of strategic policy and of senior manager, strategic research will be merged into the position of director of strategic policy and research, who will report directly to the CCO. That person was not named in the memo.
The other groups within the Consumer Affairs and Strategic Planning sector will remain as they are and report to the CCO.
