TekSavvy asks for investigation by Public Sector Integrity Commissioner of CRTC comish

TekSavvy Solutions Inc. has asked the Office of the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner of Canada to open an investigation into what the company has long alleged is a pattern of wrongdoing by CRTC chair Ian Scott. In a Wednesday press release, TekSavvy argues that Scott misled the House of Commons Industry committee when he said he did nothing wrong by meeting with BCE Inc. CEO (and then chief operating officer) Mirko Bibic in an Ottawa bar in December 2019. Scott "clearly broke key federal rules," TekSavvy wrote in the release, pointing to the CRTC's internal ethics protocols and the Values and Ethics Code for the Public Sector. In its submission to the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner, TekSavvy discloses the September, 2021 results of an access to information request the company filed seeking internal communications about the meeting, and quotes an email from Scott's office to Bibic confirming the meeting, sent at 5:57 p.m. on the day of the meeting. TekSavvy wrote in its submission that a widely circulated photograph of Scott and Bibic at D'Arcy McGee's on Sparks Street in Ottawa has a timestamp of 5:25 p.m., before the CRTC's confirmation of the meeting. TekSavvy further alleges that other than Scott's redact internal calendar entry about the meeting item and the email sent to Bibic, "no other records have been provided establishing how the meeting was set up, such as a formal request for a meeting and the intended topic, a calendar invitation to Mr. Bibic or emails between Mr. Scott’s office to any Bell employee confirming the date or time of the December Meeting." "The only records disclosed relating to the meeting appear to have been created after the meeting was already underway," TekSavvy wrote in its submission. As a result, TekSavvy continued, "there is only one logical inference that can be drawn" from the information the company has accumulated. The meeting was "apparently arranged personally between Mr. Scott and Mr. Bibic, or possibly their staff, without producing any written records of these arrangements. It was apparently not scheduled through usual channels typically employed when scheduling such meetings." "The meeting was only acknowledged through usual official channels (via the 5:57pm email) once it was already underway," TekSavvy wrote. The company further argued that the fact that Bell registered the meeting with the Lobby Register one day after the meeting, rather than in a more typical monthly report, "suggests that this oddly timed reporting was yet another measure designed to quickly obscure the impropriety of the meeting, by quickly reporting it before it might otherwise have become public." According to the Office of the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner, the commissioner will launch an investigation "when the allegations concern wrongdoing as defined by the Act and when there are sufficient grounds to believe that wrongdoing has occurred," and will consider whether or not "the information disclosed has been properly and adequately dealt with, or could more appropriately be dealt with, according to another procedure," as well as the length of time that has elapsed since the event in question. TekSavvy points to a Federal Court summary of CRTC internal guidelines around meetings with stakeholders from its decision in a court case surrounding the dismissal of former commissioner Raj Shoan. If "a meeting was held there should be a clear record generated of what was discussed and meetings should be held in a business setting, meaning boardrooms not restaurants, and to the extent possible should not be held alone," the Federal Court wrote in its decision. The filing with the integrity commissioner marks an escalation in the conflict between Scott and the wholesale-based internet service providers (ISPs) that has erupted since the CRTC's 2021 reversal of a 2019 decision on rates for wholesale internet access. TekSavvy has also filed a petition to the Liberal cabinet over the reversal, as well as a court challenge in the Federal Court of Appeals. In February, the Competitive Network Operators of Canada filed an application with the CRTC asking for Ian Scott to “recuse himself, or be recused, from deciding all matters affecting service-based competition” pending the outcome of TekSavvy‘s court challenge, after a similar request from TekSavvy in November. On Feb. 8, Scott defended himself before the House of Commons Industry committee. "“The approach the commission takes – I, fellow commissioners, staff – with respect to meetings is grounded in well established rules,” Scott told MPs. The CRTC did not respond to a request for comment on TekSavvy's submission at press time. — Reporting by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca and editing by Paul Park at the wirereport.ca

TekSavvy asks for investigation by Public Sector Integrity Commissioner of CRTC comish

News | March 2, 2022

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TekSavvy asks for investigation by Public Sector Integrity Commissioner of CRTC comish

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