MINISTRY OF TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATIONS (1971 - 1987)
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MTC) was the provincial ministry responsible for operating and maintaining Ontario’s highway system, as well as developing and implementing transportation and communication policy, overseeing regulatory affairs, and in some instances, enforcement activity. The MTC was established in 1971 when the Department of Highways, and the Department of Transportation were merged together into what back in those days was described as a "super ministry". Additionally, responsibilities for railways and telephone companies were transfered from the Department of Municipal Affairs to this new super ministry. Although its responsibilities for telephone companies surely justified the inclusion of the term "communications" in the title of the Ministry, the regulation of the brand new technology (as it was in 1971) of cable television was the primary interest of the government in this regard. Unfortunately, the Province of Ontario never achieved its ultimate goal of the regulation of cable television as a series of Supreme Court decisions in 1976 and 1977 ruled that cable television, as an industry, was nothing more than an integrated extension of over the air broadcasting, and thus was subject to the exclusive legislative jurisdiction of the federal Parliament. For the next 10 years the communications aspect remained restricted to regulating Ontario's 31 independent telephone companies until responsibility for that industry was transferred to the Ministry of Culture and Communications in 1987. Since then, the ministry has been responsible only for transportation matters, and simply known as the Ministry of Transportation, or MTO. |
The above is a brief and incomplete history of the Ontario Ministry of Transportation and Communications. If you notice any errors or have any information to add, please feel free to email me.