Start.ca wants government to overturn decision; CNOC launches email campaign
CHATHAM, LONDON and OTTAWA — On Monday, independent ISP TekSavvy Solutions filed a notice of motion with the Federal Court of Appeal seeking leave to appeal the CRTC’s recent wholesale third-party Internet access (TPIA) rates decision which reversed the Commission’s August 2019 decision to lower the rates.
Monday was the deadline for parties to file a court appeal against the Commission’s decision.
TekSavvy has already filed a petition to cabinet in May, asking for the CRTC’s 2019 final rates order to be reinstated. In its petition, TekSavvy also asks for CRTC chair Ian Scott to be removed from his position. Last week, TekSavvy said it has filed additional evidence with the federal government regarding ex parte meetings Scott had with Bell, Rogers and Shaw while the Commission was still reviewing its 2019 decision on the final TPIA rates.
In a press release on Tuesday announcing its court challenge, TekSavvy says the CRTC’s rate-reversal decision (Decision 2021-181) “stunned observers by reversing the CRTC’s own 2019 Final Rates Order, which had already been upheld by the Federal Court of Appeal and which the Federal Cabinet and the Supreme Court of Canada declined to review.”
According to its press release, TekSavvy argues in its court filing “the CRTC violated its right to procedural fairness and committed an error of law or jurisdiction when it scrapped its 2019 Final Rates Order by arbitrarily reverting to the much higher rates set in 2016 — the same rates the CRTC itself already determined to be grossly inflated.”
TekSavvy says it hopes the Liberal Government will intervene quickly in the matter, which would make the court proceeding unnecessary.
“After years of litigation and delay, it is now clear that the solution to this fiasco rests with Cabinet. Cabinet must reinstate the CRTC’s pro-consumer 2019 Final Rates Order, which was based on years of process, mountains of evidence and withstood three challenges,” said Andy Kaplan-Myrth, TekSavvy’s vice-president of regulatory and carrier affairs, in the press release. “We also believe Cabinet must apply the same standards of conduct to Mr. Scott as it has to another Commissioner it terminated in the past. While we await Cabinet’s ruling, we will continue to use every legal means available to us to overturn the CRTC’s arbitrary, anti-consumer decision.”
In a separate move on Tuesday, the Competitive Network Operators of Canada (CNOC) launched an email campaign against the CRTC’s decision to revert to the higher TPIA rates. CNOC is asking Canadians to write to their MPs and sign a petition requesting the federal government reinstate the lower wholesale rates set in the CRTC’s 2019 decision.
CNOC invites Canadians to visit the “I want affordable Internet” webpage on CNOC’s website here, to use its email tool to contact their MP and Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne to have them, according to the petition, “demand that the Liberal government immediately overturn Telecom Decision 2021-181, and restore the lower 2019 wholesale internet rates.”
“For over a year, Canadians have relied more heavily on the internet to stay connected to work, school, and their loved ones than ever before,” said Matt Stein, CNOC chair, in the organization’s press release. “We created this tool to assist our customers in telling their MPs why the CRTC’s surprise flip-flop must be overturned.”
In its press release, CNOC references a recent report from the House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology which said the CRTC’s recent decisions did not meet “Canadians’ expectations of affordability in the telecommunications sector”, according to the report.
“If the government does not put the CRTC back in line with its own policy of promoting competition, affordability, and consumer interests, which is its prerogative, Canadians can expect to pay even more for less,” added Geoff White, CNOC executive director. “It’s time that the government follows through on its commitments on affordable telecom service.”
London, Ont.-based independent ISP Start.ca also issued a press release on Tuesday, saying it will be calling on the government of Canada to overturn the CRTC’s ruling on wholesale rates.
Start.ca says the CRTC’s reversal of its 2019 decision to implement lower wholesale Internet rates leaves ISPs like Start.ca “little choice but to increase customer pricing in order to keep up with the inflated rates,” reads the company’s press release.
“In Canada, we already pay some of the highest internet rates in the world. If the Government does not overturn this remarkably disappointing reversal on fairer access rates, Canadian consumers should ultimately expect to see their internet bills go up and will have less choice when it comes to their internet services,” explains Start.ca CEO Peter Rocca, in the press release. “By reversing their own decision, the CRTC has demonstrated more concern with protecting the large providers and their billions in profits than fulfilling its mandate of protecting Canadian consumers.”
Start.ca says it has already started to notify customers of upcoming price increases on some Internet plans due to the CRTC’s ruling.
“Additionally, the impact of this decision has resulted in Start.ca suspending its plans to provide an affordable mobile phone service, an initiative that the company had already invested significant resources into, including participating in the current 5G spectrum auction,” says the release.
Start.ca ends its press release by encouraging members of the public to email their MPs through CNOC’s “affordable Internet” webpage.
