Also requests he make careful decisions about his participation in certain proceedings
GATINEAU – The Competitive Network Operators of Canada (CNOC) today asked CRTC chair and CEO Ian Scott directly to resolve a backlog of CRTC decisions and to consider his participation in certain Commission proceedings.
In a letter filed today via GCKey, which Cartt.ca has received a copy of, CNOC asks Scott “to resolve the Commission’s backlog of competition moving decisions as soon as possible,” arguing the CRTC “has accumulated a severe backlog of pending decisions and / or inactive proceedings that involve matters that are critical to competition.”
This includes a proceeding on disaggregated wholesale high-speed access services initiated in June, 2020, a CNOC Part 1 application filed in January, 2021 regarding competitive access to incumbent fibre-to-the-premises facilities, a proceeding initiated in April, 2020, which reviews rate setting approaches for wholesale telecommunications services and a Part 1 application filed by Shaw in May, 2020 requesting relief from the CRTC’s speed-matching rule.
“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,” CNOC’s letter to Scott reads.
“The level of regulatory uncertainty created by the current backlog is stifling competition, investment and innovation by service-based competitors and facilities-based carriers alike. Accordingly, we urge you to take all possible measures, in your capacity as CEO, to resolve the backlog as soon as possible.”
In the letter, CNOC also asks Scott to “carefully decide whether or not to participate in any ongoing or future telecommunications matter involving service-based competition.”
Earlier this year, CNOC filed an application seeking an order that Scott recuse himself or be recused from proceedings involving service-based competition, arguing it “is crucial to restore public and stakeholder confidence in the CRTC, to protect it from further institutional damage, and to avoid the taint of bias.”
The application asked for the recusal order to be made pending the results of a TekSavvy appeal to the Federal Court, which includes allegations of bias against Scott.
The CRTC responded to CNOC’s application through a letter informing the organization it would not consider its request as it is up to individual members themselves to make decisions on whether to recuse themselves from proceedings.
In CNOC’s letter from today, the organization asks Scott to make his “decisions having regard to principles of natural justice and the duty of procedural fairness that the Commission owes to participants in its proceedings,” and further asks he “consider public trust and expectations that members of the Commission will decide matters in a fair, impartial and transparent manner.”
