Court dismisses dispute over hydro pole pricing

A panel of Ontario Divisional Court judges has dismissed an application from a group of telecom companies disputing the Ontario Energy Board’s handling of setting new rates for attaching communications equipment to hydro poles in Ottawa. In a Dec. 14 decision, judges Anne Molloy, Michael Dambrot and Michael Varpio sided with the Ontario Energy Board and Hydro Ottawa, which last year raised its pole attachment rate from the 2005 price of $22.35 per pole per year to $53. The new rates came into effect on Jan. 1. Rogers Communications Inc., Telus Corp., Quebecor Inc. and Zayo Group Holding Inc.’s Allstream protested the rate change during the Ontario Energy Board proceeding, according to the written reasons for the decision authored by Molloy. “In the course of the application leading to the 2016 rate change, the appellants sought to persuade the OEB to revisit some of the methodology and assumptions underlying the March 2005 rate order,” the decision said. But the board “determined that it would conduct a comprehensive policy review with respect to the province-wide pole attachment rate, which would include a review of the methodology and components for determining the rate,” the decision said. The review started last November and is still ongoing. In a Nov. 5 letter launching the review, the Ontario Energy Board said the first phase “plans to prioritize the review of wireline pole attachments,” and has since formed a Pole Attachments Working Group “to provide advice on the technical aspects and related details to be addressed in respect of pole attachments.” According to information available on the board’s website, the group last met in July. In their application, the companies claimed the board had breached procedural fairness in going ahead with the new rates “having acknowledged that the 2005 methodology used to set the pole attachment rate needed to be reviewed” and that it was unreasonable for the board to set a final order on the rates, instead of an interim one. The court decided there was no reason to interfere in the board’s decision, which it said was “a reasonable one, supported by cogent, policy-based reasons.”

Court dismisses dispute over hydro pole pricing

Brief | December 20, 2016

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Court dismisses dispute over hydro pole pricing

Brief | December 20, 2016

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