Doug Ashbury
Northern News Services

NNSL (July 26/99) - There's a Northern voice aboard the country's communications regulator. It belongs to Ron Williams.

Williams now lives in Edmonton. But he has spent most of his life in the NWT.

From November 1997 to March 1999, Williams served as deputy minister with the Government of the Northwest Territories.

But many Northerners know him for his work in the North's communications sector.

Williams was president of Mackenzie Media before he and other principals sold the business to NorthwesTel. He also served as president of the NWT Communications Centre and was NWT Power Corp. vice-chairman.

"The North is special to me," Williams said.

One of the areas he will face is the high cost of service in the North. The CRTC recently held hearings on high costs associated with Northern and remote services. Neither Williams nor Francoise Bertrand, the commission's chairperson, would comment on the subject until later this year.

Williams, who started working in broadcasting when he was 17 years old -- he's now 42 -- believes he will add a Northern perspective and a "good understanding" of Northern issues to the commission. He is the first Northerner and quite likely the first Metis appointed a commissioner.

He also believes his experience with the NWT Power Corp. will serve him well. The utility, like broadcasters in the North, face challenges of supply services at high costs to remote communities.

"As regional commissioner, he (Williams) will participate in CRTC decisions," Bertrand said.

The CRTC, an independent public authority operating at arm's length from government which reports to Parliament through the Minister of Canadian Heritage, makes about 3,000 regulatory decisions a year. About 2,900 of those decisions are rendered by the full panel of commissioners.

The CRTC will be opening a regional office and document centre in Edmonton.

Williams now lives in Edmonton but his region of responsibility covers Alberta, the NWT and Nunavut. His commissioner term is four years.