CNOC makes appeal to CRTC chair personally

The industry group Competitive Network Operators of Canada (CNOC) has sent a letter personally addressed to CRTC chair Ian Scott, asking Scott to both "resolve the commission’s backlog of competition moving decisions as soon as possible," as well as "consider ongoing and future participation in any proceeding before the commission involving service-based competition." The letter comes just over a month after the CRTC rejected a previous request from CNOC addressed to the commission asking for Scott's recusal from all matters before the regulator related to the relationship of wholesale-based internet service providers (ISPs) and incumbents. In a letter to CNOC rejecting the request, the CRTC wrote that "the decision of a member of the commission to recuse themselves in respect of a matter is a decision that only the member can make and does not engage the commission’s processes.” As such, CNOC's Friday letter to Scott addresses him directly. "e request that you, in your role as an individual commissioner and in light of the considerable influence you wield as chair, carefully decide whether or not to participate in any ongoing or future telecommunications matter involving service-based competition," CNOC wrote. We ask that you make your decisions having regard to principles of natural justice and the duty of procedural fairness that the commission owes to participants in its proceedings. We further ask that you consider public trust and expectations that members of the commission will decide matters in a fair, impartial and transparent manner," the letter concluded. The claims of bias stem from comments made by Scott in an online Canadian Club Toronto event where the chair expressed a “personal” preference for facilities-based competition, as well as a meeting between Scott and BCE Inc. CEO (then COO) Mirko Bibic in an Ottawa bar, events Scott defended at the House of Commons Industry committee hearing in February. The Friday letter also asks Scott to speed up a number of proceedings currently under review or awaiting decisions at the CRTC. "The commission has accumulated a severe backlog of pending decisions and / or inactive proceedings that involve matters that are critical to competition," the letter read. CNOC pointed to a consultation opened in June of 2020 on changes to the disaggregated regime for wholesale access to incumbent infrastructure, as well as a January 2021 CNOC request for an interim framework on fibre resale rates. The CRTC's review of its wholesale rate setting methods launched in April 2020, and Shaw Communications Inc.'s request for relief from the regulator's speed matching requirements are also referenced in the letter. "These are but a few examples of pending decisions and / or inactive proceedings that have contributed to a climate of profound regulatory uncertainty. CNOC has made its submissions in all of the above cited and other competition-related proceedings and will not repeat them here," CNOC wrote in the Friday letter. "While the outcome of each proceeding will definitely matter in terms of whether competition will or will not be promoted and thrive, the lack of decisions in the meantime, also has a profoundly corrosive effect on competition." "Accordingly, we urge you to take all possible measures, in your capacity as CEO, to resolve the backlog as soon as possible. CNOC is prepared to work collaboratively with you and all stakeholders in this regard," CNOC wrote to Scott. — Reporting by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca and editing by Jenna Cocullo at jcocullo@thewirereport.ca

CNOC makes appeal to CRTC chair personally

Broadcast | March 18, 2022

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CNOC makes appeal to CRTC chair personally

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