This over-riding mandate, designed to protect the public from abuses by monopolies, involves a number of complex financial considerations which require constant monitoring, research and evaluation for analysis purposes by the regulator. In particular, as the carriers strive to maximize profits for their shareholders, the Commission must set specific constraints in the form of allowable rates of return on invested capital to investors when setting rates for telecommunications services. The incumbent is responsible for all financial and accounting inputs and recommendations to the Commission's decisions regarding telecommunications issues. These include formal audits, analysis and forecast of revenues, impacts of rate restructuring, structural separation and pricing as well as expenses and costs of capital carriers, and control of their performance over time and in comparison with other telecommunications carriers. The Director General is also responsible for evolving policies respecting revenue requirement principles as appropriate, establishing new costing methodologies to implement these revenue requirements, and developing policies and principles to investigate the financial impact of emerging technologies and services on telecommunications sectors in Canada.
Teams consist of economists, accountants, sociologists, statisticians, rating experts and lawyers.
With each carrier being among the most sophisticated companies in the world, even the seemingly straightforward matter of choosing an efficient means of auditing, or of elaborating a comprehensive accounting process tailored to each company, usually involves the Director General in introducing new and different methods and procedures. The quality of advice and the nature of policy options proposed by the Director General and staff, directly affect the price structure for both residential and commercial subscriber rates permitted by telecommunications monopolies. The impact of the decisions is reflected in the price paid by individual Canadians and by small and large businesses. As the cost of communications takes on an ever-increasing proportion of the cost of doing business, it becomes clear that decisions affecting price structure directly influence the competitive edge of Canadian businesses in international markets. A major challenge is to evolve new policies and procedures so that users of monopoly telecommunications services are not cross-subsidizing other ventures of the carriers, for the benefit of shareholders.