Small telecoms call for more forceful language in policy direction

The CRTC’s new, consumer-focused policy direction doesn’t go far enough, according to smaller companies and advocacy groups, who told the government the proposed language is too flimsy, too open to interpretation by the commission, and is liable to be superceded in moments of ambiguity by its 2006 predecessor. Distributel Communications Ltd. wrote in its submission to the government that while the company supports the new policy directive, it wants stronger language governing how the CRTC will emphasize competition going forward. Whereas the current language in the government’s draft proposal says the commission “should consider how” its decisions promote competition in the industry, Distributel suggests the language be made mandatory: the commission “shall ensure that” it centres competition in its decisions. “With the current wording, the Commission could engage in an academic exercise of thinking about whether those results would be promoted, without taking positive steps to achieve them,” the company said. The government announced the new policy direction in February and its consultation period wrapped up last week. The directive would require the CRTC to consider how regulatory measures “can promote competition, affordability, consumer interests and innovation” in issuing new regulations and rulings, while the previous direction, dating from Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government, emphasized market forces in the regulator’s decision-making. In calling for a policy directive with more teeth and for the scrapping of the 2006 version, Distributel echoed submissions from TekSavvy Solutions Inc., Cogeco Inc., Iristel Inc., and that the Canadian Network Operators Consortium (CNOC), which represents smaller telecoms. TekSavvy’s submission said that the new policy direction for the CRTC should be “made to apply to all activities of the CRTC, and not just to regulatory work.” That would include the CRTC’s annual Communications Monitoring Report -- the latest edition of which received some criticism from Teksavvy. CNOC, too, wants the language of promoting competition to be mandatory, calling for the replacement of the phrase “consider how” in subsection 1(a) with “ensure that” and the word “should” in subsection 1(b) with “must.” “There is no reason that the Commission should not be required, as a mandatory condition when relying upon regulation, to explain how its regulatory measures promote the Governor in Council’s objectives of promoting competition, affordability, consumer interests, and innovation,” the CNOC submission reads. Advocacy groups also applauded the new directive. “The proposed New Policy Direction indicates a clear message to CRTC from government to reorient telecommunications policy towards consumers,” the submission from the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) reads. OpenMedia, however, also pointed out that the previous incarnation of the directive was itself written with stronger language. The 2006 directive says that the CRTC should “rely on market forces to the maximum extent feasible as the means of achieving the telecommunications policy objectives,” whereas the 2019 update reads that the CRTC “should consider how the measures used can promote competition, affordability, consumer interests and innovation.” OpenMedia said that this means “that unless the language is strengthened in this new direction, and the previous one is completely replaced, this new direction will fail to take hold or affect any substantive change, inherently defaulting to its predecessor every time the two are in conflict.” Attached to its submission are the names of more than 14,000 signatories of an OpenMedia petition, calling for the removal of the 2006 policy directive. In contrast, large telecoms have called for the new directive to explicitly state that it’s complementary to the 2006 directive. They’re also saying the proposal should focus more on investment and facilities-based competition. — With reporting by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

Small telecoms call for more forceful language in policy direction

News | April 16, 2019

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Small telecoms call for more forceful language in policy direction

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