Concord fights back against Shaw on access to property in Vancouver

Heenan Blaikie, lawyers for Concord Pacific Group Inc., have shot back at Shaw Communications Inc. over a Part VII the communications company filed with the CRTC requesting what they describe as a "blanket order" for access to all of Concord's property developments. "Shaw is seeking ‘gold plated' and guaranteed access to the Spectrum Towers, notwithstanding Concord's reasonable requests for information, all of which are well within industry-accepted parameters pursuant to which developers seek information/proposals from all service providers prior to permitting access to their properties," writes Heenan Blaikie lawyer Stephen Zolf.As previously reported in Network Letter, Shaw filed a Part VII requesting the commission order Concord to allow Shaw access to the Spectrum Towers developments. The communications service provider also noted that marketing information requested by Concord was irrelevant. Shaw highlighted two previous CRTC rulings (Telecom Decision 2007-69 and Broadcasting Decision 2007-288) that concluded Concord affiliate company Novus Entertainment had contravened the Telecommunications Act regarding access to building. Concord's lawyers dismiss Shaw's attempt to rely on the previous decisions as "similar fact evidence," noting that those findings are irrelevant to the present case. They claim that Shaw is simply trying to gain unfettered access to Concord's Spectrum Towers. "Shaw is attempting to ‘bootstrap' on the findings of Decision 2007-69 to effectively obtain what it could not achieve in the former proceeding, namely a de facto blanket order to gain unfettered access to Spectrum Towers and, moreover, to all Concord developments," reads Concord's submission. Heenan Blaikie suggests that Shaw is using the commission's Part VII process to avoid negotiating in good faith to come a mutually acceptable building access agreement. Shaw contends on the other hand that the commission has to become involved because Concord is conferring undue preference - something Concord discounts. "Shaw has simply been placed in the same position that many service providers face in relation to other MDUs, namely the obligation to negotiate an access agreement with the residents' strata council in order to provide its services to the residents," writes Zolf. "Shaw will not incur any additional costs, nor it is submitted, will it suffer any loss of customers as a result of these circumstances." Concord wants to return to the CRTC staff-assisted mediation process, started at the request of Shaw in August. It believes that this is the appropriate forum in which to negotiate competitive access to Concord properties by BDUs and LECs.

Concord fights back against Shaw on access to property in Vancouver

News | November 16, 2007

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