TekSavvy’s wholesale appeal uses failed incumbent arguments from 2019: Bell

TekSavvy Solutions Inc.'s arguments in its June challenge to the CRTC's final decision on wholesale internet access rates -- that the CRTC breached its duty of procedural fairness in not conducting a thorough review of the new rates -- are the same arguments made by incumbent telecom companies (and rejected by the Federal Court of Appeal) back in 2019, according to BCE Inc. In Bell's Aug. 3 memorandum of fact and law, filed in response to TekSavvy's application for leave to appeal, the incumbent telecom argues that TekSavvy is essentially making the same arguments Bell and the cable carriers made in their September 2019 appeal of the rate regime. "TekSavvy now seeks leave to appeal the resulting CRTC Decision on substantially the same grounds that this Court rejected in the First Appeal, after they were vigorously opposed by TekSavvy itself," Bell wrote. "TekSavvy’s arguments are plainly at odds with the decision of this Court in the First Appeal, with TekSavvy’s own arguments therein, and with its petition to Cabinet." What's more, Bell argues in the filing, because of the discrepancy, TekSavvy "therefore seeks to distract this Court with sensationalist and unfounded claims of bias that impugn the integrity of the CRTC Chair." Back in June, TekSavvy applied for leave to appeal on three grounds. First, TekSavvy argued that the CRTC gave insufficient reasons of "regulatory burden" and lack of incumbent evidence in its decision not to launch a fresh review and assessment of the wholesale rates. Second, it claimed the CRTC failed in its mandate under the Telecommunications Act to set rates “just and reasonable” using “any method or technique that it considers appropriate.” Third, the company argued that a Dec. 2019 meeting in an Ottawa bar between CRTC chair Ian Scott and then-Bell chief financial officer Mirko Bibic gave rise to "a reasonable apprehension of bias.” In its Aug. 3 filing, Bell argues that TekSavvy's first argument is not a reviewable question of law or jurisprudence. "Rather, it is a disguised attack on the factual and policy-laden method the CRTC chose to set the rates, which was to restore the interim rates in effect prior to the 2019 Final Rates Decision rather than correct each specific error the CRTC identified with the latter.” TekSavvy's contention that the CRTC's decision to not implement a new rate setting process is a failure under Section 27(5) of the Telecommunications Act "once again impugns the CRTC’s choice of its rate-setting approach, which this Court in the First Appeal held is a question of fact and policy better addressed by Cabinet," Bell writes, adding that it believes TekSavvy concedes the point by also filing a petition to cabinet. The happy hour meeting between Bibic and Scott, Bell also argues, "was a typical, registered lobbying activity of the sort engaged in by TekSavvy itself." "The impugned meeting did not even concern the subject of the CRTC Decision – telecommunications − but instead involved a discussion about broadcasting." — Reporting by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca and editing by Hannah Daley at hdaley@thewirereport.ca

TekSavvy’s wholesale appeal uses failed incumbent arguments from 2019: Bell

News | August 9, 2021

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TekSavvy’s wholesale appeal uses failed incumbent arguments from 2019: Bell

News | August 9, 2021

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