By Denis Carmel
GATINEAU – Enough delay, say the independent ISPs.
TekSavvy, Distributel and the Competitive Network Operators of Canada on Friday filed applications with the CRTC demanding the incumbent telco and cable carriers file new tariffs as ordered by the Commission in its August 2019 decision setting new wholesale internet rates (CRTC 2019-288).
The decision gave the network owners until September 14, 2019 to do so, but only Telus filed. Later, SaskTel filed its tariff pages after a CRTC reminder. The other incumbents declined to do so, pending the three appeals of the decision filed shortly after the August 2019 rates announcement (to the Court, Cabinet, and back to the CRTC).
Today’s letters were of course spurred on by Thursday’s Federal Court of Appeal (FCA) ruling which affirmed the CRTC decision which set new wholesale rates for third party internet access providers. That also means the prior court-granted stay of those rates and retroactive payments decreed by CRTC 2019-288 decision, is gone.
Distributel’s application says “the remainder of the incumbents again refused to comply with the Commission’s directions. Bell, for example, explicitly stated that it would not be complying with the Commission’s directions in light of the fact that Bell and the Cable Carriers had filed motions to the Federal Court of Appeal to seek a stay of Telecom Order 2019-288. Bell further advised that Bell, not the Commission, would be the one to determine whether ‘it is appropriate to issue updated tariff pages’. To our knowledge, the other incumbents chose to simply ignore the directions contained in the Commission’s 20 September 2019 letter.”
TekSavvy says in the application it filed Friday the FCA decision “was unequivocal in its findings that the appellants did not have sound legal rationale for their appeal. In fact, the court held that many of their legal arguments were of ‘dubious merit.’ (…) TekSavvy asks that the Commission act promptly to implement TO 2019-288 now that the FCA stays have been lifted.”
“The Cabinet Decision dismissed the incumbents petitions, and the preambles to that Order—containing unspecific, political opinions not likely based on a detailed, expert review such as that completed by the Commission—are of zero legal effect.” – CNOC
They request the Regulator do so no later than Thursday, September 17, 2020.
CNOC repeats some of the same arguments in its Friday filing and asks for the Commission to “now rule expeditiously on the stay requests made to the Commission by Bell Canada and the cable carriers.” Both asked the CRTC to stay its own decision when they filed their Review & Vary in 2019.
“With respect to the Cabinet Decision, as CNOC argued to the Federal Court of Appeal, the Cabinet Decision dismissed the incumbents petitions, and the preambles to that Order—containing unspecific, political opinions not likely based on a detailed, expert review such as that completed by the Commission—are of zero legal effect.
“If those extraneous comments are considered or relied on by the Commission, they are prone to a fresh legal challenge on jurisdictional grounds. The Commission must ignore such political interference, and not allow the incumbents to use it to add yet another delay.”
When asked to comment on these new applications (not to mention TekSavvy’s promise to stop paying its bills to Rogers and Bell if the retroactive payments from CRTC 2019-288 are not forthcoming), a Rogers spokesperson said in an email “the matter is before the CRTC and we can’t comment further.”
