Bell Canada prepares for Supreme Court battle to keep customer rebates

Bell Canada is absolutely convinced that the CRTC didn't have the authority to order customer rate rebates as part of its 2006 deferral account decision and will rely on many of the same arguments it presented to the Federal Court of Appeal to battle the commission once again - this time before the country's highest court. As was reported by Network Letter last week, Bell plans to appeal the FCA ruling to the Supreme Court of Canada. The company has until early May to file leave to appeal which will have to include legal submissions arguing why Bell should get leave to appeal. "The CRTC cannot order us to issue rebates because that is in essence retroactively adjusting our local service rates which had been approved in final form on June 1, 2003," Mirko Bibic, chief of regulatory affairs at Bell, tells NL. The company took its fight to the FCA, but ultimately lost when the court ruled the CRTC did, in fact, have the authority to order the rate rebates. In its decision the court noted that the deferral accounts were set up to deal with future decisions, not to change past rate approvals. "The subscriber rebate in this case did not, in intent or in effect, reduce retrospectively any rates that had been determined to be just and reasonable. It was therefore entirely prospective," read the FCA's March 7 decision. Bibic contests the FCA's reasoning. "They said the final order was always subject to a potential rebate under the deferral account, which we think is wrong," he says. Despite the ongoing fight over the now two-year-old deferral account ruling, the company remains firmly committed to rolling out broadband in rural and remote regions of Ontario and Quebec. However, those anticipating a speedy deployment of broadband to Canada's hinterlands will have to wait. Spending on broadband is on hold and will stay that way until the legal issues are dealt with. Bell is only appealing the customer rebate aspect of the deferral account and "we're not appealing in any way the jurisdiction or advisability of the broadband decisions," says Bibic. "The fact that broadband is stayed and we're not spending money on it shouldn't be viewed as an indication that we're no longer committed to broadband." Bell wasn't the only group that failed to win its case before the FCA. The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC), the Consumers Association of Canada and the National Anti-Poverty Association also had their appeal dismissed on March 7. "We're still mulling it over," Michael Janigan, executive director and general counsel at PIAC, tells NL. "Bell has informed us that they will be applying for leave to appeal so that may have an effect on our decision. So we're considering it." PIAC et al. wanted the bulk of the deferral account money returned to subscribers in the form of rate rebates. But their case was somewhat weakened on January 17 when the CRTC approved the ILECs' broadband plans to the tune of approximately $300 million, leaving most of the remaining $350 million for subscriber rate rebates. This certainly wasn't all of what PIAC was asking for, but it's difficult to baulk at this amount going back to the telephone customers who contributed to the deferral accounts in the first place.

Bell Canada prepares for Supreme Court battle to keep customer rebates

News | March 27, 2008

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