OTTAWA — The CRTC has agreed to direct the Competition Bureau to disclose certain confidential information that was redacted in the economic report submitted by the Commissioner of Competition in November to the CRTC’s wireless policy review proceeding. That is, the CRTC is agreeing to disclosure requests from Bell and Rogers; but it’s still considering similar requests from Telus and CNOC.
In a letter posted to the CRTC website on January 10, the CRTC says it is of the view that, generally speaking, the public disclosure of the redacted information, as requested by Bell and Rogers, would pose minimal risk of harm to parties who disclosed their confidential information to the Competition Bureau’s commissioner. Furthermore, by having access to this information, parties will be better positioned to evaluate the commissioner’s analysis, which should lead to a more fulsome record, the CRTC writes in its letter.
In addition to Bell and Rogers, Telus and CNOC (Canadian Network Operators Consortium), have made separate requests to have certain elements of the report’s redacted information disclosed. However, the CRTC says the requests made by Telus and CNOC “are extensive and complex, and include proposals to disclose information selectively to certain qualifying persons and to further amend the procedural dates in this proceeding, including the date of the hearing.”
As such, the CRTC says CNOC’s and Telus’ requests are still being assessed and the Commission will issue its related determinations at a later date. The CRTC adds in its letter that while many parties opposed the CNOC and Telus requests, most parties did not offer any objections to the Bell and Rogers requests.
The disclosure requests made by Bell and Rogers focused on the outcomes of some of the statistical tests and models that were conducted as part of the Competition commissioner’s studies.
Specifically, Bell requested disclosure of:
- All estimated regression coefficients and all calculated marginal effects reported in Exhibits 8, 9 and 10 in the report;
- All estimated percentage changes reported in Exhibits 11 and 12 in the report; and
- All summary statistics that are related to Bell-specific data to Bell only in the report.
Rogers specifically requested public disclosure of:
- The diagnostic results and coefficient of the time trend variable presented in Appendix D, Exhibits D-2 and D-3
With regard to the requests made by Bell and Rogers, the Bureau initially indicated that if the regression information was disclosed on the public record, there would be little risk that any information previously designated by parties as confidential could be deduced as a result. Further, the Commissioner did not object to disclosing party-specific summary statistics included in the report to Bell. However, in a subsequent letter dated December 23, 2019, the Bureau filed a revised submission indicating that, in his view, disclosure of columns four and five of Exhibit D-3 in the report could result in Bell and Rogers each identifying certain specific, confidential information of the other party.
Accordingly, with the exception of columns four and five of Exhibit D-3, the CRTC says it is of the view that the public interest in the release of the information being sought by Bell and Rogers would outweigh any potential harm.
As a result, the CRTC says it directs the Competition Bureau commissioner to publicly disclose the following:
- All estimated regression coefficients and all calculated marginal effects reported in Exhibits 8, 9 and 10 in the report;
- All estimated percentage changes reported in Exhibits 11 and 12 in the report; and
- The diagnostic results and coefficient of the time trend variable presented in Appendix D, Exhibits D-2 and D-3 (with the exception of columns four and five of Exhibit D-3).
The CRTC also directs the commissioner to disclose to Bell only:
- All summary statistics that are related to Bell-specific data in the report
Finally, in the interest of fairness, the CRTC says it directs the Competition commissioner to, upon written request, disclose to any other carrier whose confidential information was used in the report:
- All summary statistics that are related to that carrier’s specific data in the report
As previously mentioned, the CRTC says is still assessing the disclosure requests made by CNOC and Telus as well as the procedural proposals related to these requests. While the creation of additional procedure may result from this assessment, the CRTC says it does not consider that any party has established it is necessary or appropriate to change the procedural steps that are in place at this time, including the February 18th start date of the public hearing, which has already been postponed once.
If any other procedural changes are necessary, the CRTC says it considers that they can be implemented at a later date and do not have to be completed prior to the commencement of the public hearing — which represents only one of many opportunities for parties to submit evidence in this proceeding, it writes.
