OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The federal government said that it will force the communication industry to abandon paper bill charges after the country’s biggest companies failed to commit to doing so at Thursday’s CRTC review into the practice.
Industry Minister James Moore said Friday that charging extra fees to customers who receive paper copies of their bills, a practice known as pay-to-pay billing, was “unfair”, and promised that the government would introduce legislation to end it in the telecommunications sector. He did not say when such legislation would be tabled.
"More and more Canadians are finding a new charge appearing on their monthly bills, including their wireless bill”, he said in a statement. “This fee is charged to those who receive their bill in the mail. Increasingly, many Canadians are being charged this new fee by companies from whom they have been receiving service for decades. We do not believe that Canadians should pay more to receive a paper copy of their telephone or wireless bill.”
Minister Moore’s comments come after the CRTC’s Thursday meeting on paper bill fees, which was attended by Bell Aliant, Bell Canada, Cogeco Cable, Eastlink, Globalive, MTS Allstream, Québecor, Rogers, SaskTel, Shaw Communications and Telus.
At that meeting, the companies that charge paper bill fees all agreed to provide exemptions for seniors, veterans, persons with disabilities and those without Internet access. Those exemptions will take effect by January 1, 2015.
But Tom Pentefountas, Vice-Chairman of Broadcasting, and Peter Menzies, Vice-Chairman of Telecommunications said in a joint statement that while they appreciated the “frank and wide-ranging” discussion on pay-to-pay billing, they were disappointed that “a broader consensus that would have taken into account the concerns of all Canadians” was not reached. They also recommended that the CRTC “reinitiate a public process to seek the views of Canadians”.
This prompted a statement by CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais commending Cogeco Cable, MTS Allstream, SaskTel and Shaw Communications for not charging their customers for paper bills, and urging Canadians to “keep this in mind when they select service providers.”
As Cartt.ca reported, the CRTC conducted a fact-finding exercise on paper bill fees last July which revealed that many companies charge anywhere between $0.99 to $5.95 per month for paper bills. Pay-to-pay billing is also a practice that the federal government pledged to end in its speech from the throne last October.
