Canada’s telecom regulator said yesterday that it is considering a number of minor changes to its recently-implemented national do-not-call registry.

One issue on the CRTC’s agenda is fairness to independent political candidates, who are not members of registered political parties granted an exemption from the list. Expanding the exemption to independent politicians is especially important for local and municipal elections, where most candidates are unaffiliated.

Regulators are also looking for a better way to track and remove telephone numbers that have been disconnected or re-assigned. Under the current system, numbers are automatically removed from the list after three years, forcing customers to periodically re-register.

Finally, the CRTC is looking into harmonizing its telemarketing rules with provincial laws restricting the use of auto-dialers to certain hours of the day.

More than 3.3 million landline, cell phone, and fax numbers have already been added to the three-week-old do-not-call list, which imposes hefty fines on telemarketers who place unwelcome calls to consumers.

The CRTC predicts that 60% of Canada’s 27 million residential telephone lines will be signed up for the list by October 2010.