Laizner’s term was set to expire next summer
By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Christianne Laizner, the CRTC’s vice chair of telecom, is retiring from the commission next month, according to a farewell note to colleagues.
Laizner’s retirement takes effect January 4, six months before her term was set to end in July. Her retirement also comes on the same day that chairman Ian Scott’s term – who was extended for four months in September – is ending.
“I know the Commission will benefit from an exciting new leadership team in 2023 and I look forward to following all the Commission’s successes and innovations in the years to come,” Laizner said in the note, as she thanked people from IT and administrative staff to fellow commissioners and assistants. “I have no doubt that the public interest will remain at the forefront of the CRTC’s policies in the future.”
She also thanked Scott for his “leadership and vision and for setting the right tone for an inclusive workplace.”
Laizner became interim vice chair of telecom in 2017 before becoming the full-time vice chair in 2018.
“From the start, the warm and welcoming culture of the Commission was evident, as I quickly noticed that elevators were full of people that knew each other and clearly had fun together,” she said in the note. “In Legal, our conference room was named “The Devine Room” in honour of a beloved former executive assistant to the Senior General Counsel.
“My steep learning curve on all things telecom was helped along by lawyers and telecom staff for whom no question was too elementary to ask (by way of example, I first became acquainted with the word ‘forbearance’ at the Commission),” she added. “As a former litigator on files that evolved over decades, I marvelled that at the CRTC, applications were filed, processed and decided in a few months.”
Laizner started at the CRTC as general counsel on telecom in December 2010, after working as a lawyer in the private sector and in four federal government departments, including as a civil litigator in the Department of Justice in 1987 and later as a counsel of what is now called Global Affairs Canada, where she provided advice on dispute settlements under the then-North American Free Trade Agreement.
The CRTC is now faced with a bit of a leadership vacancy problem, with Scott and now Laizner leaving next month and Alicia Barin’s term as vice chair of broadcasting ending in February (though her term as commissioner for Quebec ends in August 2024).
