Determining essential services on the Canadian information highway: An exploratory study of the public policy process

This exploratory research was designed to study the policy process through which essential services were being determined for the Canadian information highway. Two theoretical models were employed: a stagist model of the policy process, and the policy community and policy network model. The data consisted of 47 interviews of key informants and policy documents gathered from 21 organizations which were interacting on this issue. A blended methodology was used: examination of the structural characteristics of the organizations; quantitative social network analytical methods to analyze the interviewees' views of organizational influence and the organizations' interactions on this policy issue; and a qualitative content analysis to analyze the core organizations' policy positions and their actual influence on the outcomes. Three types of interactions were discovered: formal communication, informal communication and resource exchange. Three prominence variables (Degree of Centrality, Choice Status, and Power) were applied to the interaction data and they identified the seven core organizations which were likely to have the greatest influence. The most reliable predictor of actual influence was Choice Status, when applied to all communication interactions. Communication was found to be essential for exerting influence. The interviewees believed that in 1995--1996 the policy process was at the problem definition stage. The data showed that Stentor and Industry Canada exerted the greatest influence, while the CRTC, the Information Highway Advisory Council, the Canadian Cable Television Association and the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) were moderately influential, and Canadian Heritage was the least influential of the core organizations. The evidence also demonstrated that Stentor was inside the sub-government and a concertation style policy network was in operation early in the policy process, but over time a pressure pluralist style network emerged. Two fundamental aspects of the policy problem were identified: how to ensure universal access to telecommunications networks and how to determine which information and content services should be the essential ones. No action has been taken on the second aspect of the problem, but in October 1999 the CRTC provided a baseline definition for basic telecommunications services which now includes universal access to the Internet at local calling rates.