There are two questions everybody asks as I prepare to leave the Canadian Association of Broadcasters after 13 and a half years at the helm.

The first is: ‘What is your most important accomplishment?’ That’s easy. It’s the key legacy I’ll leave my successor. Over the years, we have professionalized the CAB, making it a strategic organization. When I started, the two most asked questions were: ‘What does the government/CRTC want us to do?’ and ‘What will they let us do?’ We’ve turned those questions around to: ‘What do we need to succeed as businesses, to serve our audiences and to contribute to the public interest?’ and ‘How do we get that done?’

This kind of strategic focus was embraced by the industry and worked out through several generations of our Taking the Lead strategic plan and more recently FuturePlan, our strategy for the digital age. We set the agenda, not just for the industry, but for government too.

By bringing in the best policy developers, lawyers, communicators, lobbyists, event planners and administrators, we turned the CAB into one of the top lobbying organizations in Canada.

The second question is: ‘What’s the future for the CAB and what will the big issues be?’ In other words, in this converging and consolidating world, is there a role for the CAB, and will it be able to find common ground with all the varying interests that now sit around the table? My answer is ‘yes!’

As I look to the future, I see 10 issues for which the industry will need the CAB to develop plans, compose differences, find common solutions and communicate those solutions to government.

1. As the industry consolidates and converges, broadcasters are into radio, television, specialty services, and production. They own and are owned by distributors. Newspapers and the Internet are now part of the equation. The government and the CRTC will be asking where it’s all going and whether it’s good for Canada. Most notably, the Competition Bureau will begin to take a greater interest in our affairs. We need to have a position.

2. We are in the middle of the most profound revolution in our history. We are taking a whole industry from analog to digital. Sure, there are differences, but there is a strong common interest in getting it right.

3. Copyright policy and what we do about rights in the digital world may be the most important issue the industry faces. Whether it’s rogue Internet players or mounting tariffs, we need to get the government to develop a policy for the 21st century that gives users fair access to content, and creators and copyright owners, fair recompense.

4. How will we take on and take advantage of the Internet?

5. Whether it’s in a new WTO round or in bilateral agreements, the Americans will be taking dead aim at our cultural policies. They did magazines. Broadcasting is next. It’s a new field for the CAB, but we must get good at it fast. Otherwise, Canada’s trade negotiators will neglect our interests.

6. Telefilm Canada and the Canadian Television Fund have taken us a long way, but they can’t take us much further. We need more unique programming that we own, exhibit and sell, and we’ll need a new television financing strategy to get it. Call it ‘Cancon Plus.’

7. We seem to be on the road to real cooperation between radio and the music industry, and government seems to finally want to focus on developing stars and creating music people want to listen to and buy. The CAB must continue to move this ahead.

8. If we could have our own ‘Made in Canada’ solution to direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs, Canadians would get better, more reliable drug information and $200 million to $300 million more advertising dollars would come to Canadian media companies and to the creation of more Canadian content.

9. If government can be made to understand that the more than $80 million a year in Part II fees paid to the CRTC constitutes an illegal tax, broadcasters and Canadian programming would benefit greatly.

10. The CRTC is making it clear they expect new measures to reflect Canada’s cultural diversity. That would be good for business too.

That’s an impressive menu, and it’s only the big stuff. The CAB’s professionals, with the backing of the industry, can handle it. My final word to my successor is from the Chinese: ‘May you live in interesting times.’ I have no doubt!