Bell top payer, PIAC top recipient of CRTC cost awards so far in 2014

The CRTC this year has ordered telecommunications companies to pay more than $230,000 to various organizations participating in different telecommunications proceedings, of which BCE Inc. and its affiliates have been assigned more than half the costs and for which the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) has been the biggest recipient. A compilation by The Wire Report, based on information from the CRTC's website, showed that the commission has awarded $233,472.90 in costs so far in 2014. The CRTC's rules of practice and procedure say that organizations can be reimbursed costs incurred by participating in a telecom proceeding if they are found to represent a group of people with an interest in the matter reviewed, if they help the CRTC understand the issue better and if they are judged to have participated in the proceedings in a "responsible way." Costs for legal and analytical services are among the costs covered, as well as expenses such as meals and travel in relation to participating in a CRTC proceeding, as outlined on the CRTC's website. Telecommunications companies that are associated with the subject under review are directed to pay the claims in proportion to their relevant revenue numbers. So far this year, Bell and affiliated companies, including Northwestel Inc. and Bell Aliant Inc., have been ordered to pay $128,564.58, which is more than three times what any other company was billed. Bell companies have been deemed liable for payment in 19 different applications for reimbursements, including proceedings about establishing a video-relay system for the hearing impaired, a modernization plan for Northwestel, the issue of removing a community's last payphone, among others. Bell declined comment for this article. Telus Corp. and Rogers Communications Inc. round out the top three in terms of their assigned payments in CRTC proceedings at $41,859.05 and $35,354.82, respectively. Among all recipients, PIAC has been awarded the most money — a total of $65,363.35 — for its involvement in issues including fees for paper billing, how Bell Canada charges for operated-assisted calls from payphones and whether undue preference had taken place in the wholesale wireless market. PIAC has been awarded costs for six different proceedings this year, which also included proceedings on 30-day notice requirements for customers cancelling a telecom service, removing a community's last payphone and an application from Bell and Bell Aliant for variance on a CRTC order with regard to billing practices. PIAC executive director John Lawford said the amount awarded to his group so far the year is relatively low compared to past years, and there are several applications for cost awards still outstanding. Lawford said the CRTC's cost-awards system helps fund operations like PIAC that give a voice to ordinary Canadians at a relatively low price. "The cost-awards system is the most efficient way to get the grand public interests represented by lawyers and people who are professionals in this business," Lawford said in a phone interview. "We operate on cost scales approved by the commission that are extremely low, comparative to other regulatory boards and to the rates of lawyers' pay and fees in the private sector for the same industry." Lawford said he's found the application process has become, as of late, "slower and more administratively cumbersome." He said the cost-awards system is crucial to his group's viability, saying that as much as 90 per cent of its funding comes is from costs awarded by the CRTC, the Broadcasting Participation Fund and the Ontario Energy Board. The only other group that has been the subject of multiple CRTC decisions this year on the awarding of costs is the DiversityCanada Foundation. The group has been approved for $6,364.39 for its activities in proceedings related to 30-day notice requirements for the cancellation of service, and the issue of removing a community's last payphone. The CRTC has issued decisions this year on applications from DiversityCanada that ask for a combined $53,307.58. The CRTC denied DiversityCanada any money in its requests for $7,355 in examination of the role of payphone in the communications system, and $32,680.73 in a proceeding it initiated to reconsider the absence of a ban on expiring prepaid wireless cards in the wireless code. In the matter looking into the role of payphones the CRTC said it was not convinced a proposed survey, for which the organization sought interim funding, was necessary. In the calling-card proceeding the CRTC said DiversityCanada "raised no genuine interest" and "did not assist the Commission in developing a better understanding of the matters that were considered in that proceeding." In the proceeding regarding the removal of a community's last payphone, for which DiversityCanada was awarded $4,604.98, the group had applied for $11, 512.44. The CRTC said that an "excessive" amount of time for external consultant fees had been claimed, and that much of its activities in this matter, including a survey of municipalities, were "out of scope." Celia Sankar, DiversityCanada's executive director, declined an interview, though she did share an application that's been filed with the CRTC that challenges its decision not to award costs in relation to the prepaid-card issue. The application suggests that the CRTC's assertion that its involvement in the issue "raised no genuine interest" merely reflects the fact that it did not agree with DiversityCanada's position, and its decision to not to award costs was "contrary to the Commission's stated intention with respect to its costs awards procedure." The CRTC had not provided a response to a request for comment by publication time. Most of the applications for cost reimbursements this year have awarded in the amounts requested. Outside of applications from DiversityCanada, there were two exceptions. One was with the Canadian Hearing Society, which was awarded $24,595 instead of $24,835 in the proceeding for developing a video-relay system because the CRTC found that its applications double-counted a $240 entitlement for meals. Also, the Neil Squire Society had its request for $3,854 reduced to an award of $3,613.14 in a Bell-initiated proceeding looking into whether it could use deferral account funds to improve accessibility for wireless services for the disabled. The CRTC said it adjusted that claim based on its own guidelines for analyst fees. The proceeding resulting in the highest amount of reimbursement this year concerned the establishment of a video-relay system, which saw $98,602.50 split between seven different groups. Bell was assigned responsibility for $38,023.27 in that proceeding, while Telus' bill came to $22,951.11 and Rogers had to pay $22,547.60. The single biggest award in that matter was $31,826.16, which went the Canadian Association of the Deaf, mostly for consultant fees. The single biggest award approved by the CRTC in 2014 was $53,088.43 for the First Mile Connectivity Consortium in the proceeding regarding Northwestel's regulatory framework and modernization plan. That cost was assigned in total to Northwestel, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bell. More than half of that amount was for expert-witness fees, while consultant fees and disbursements made up the rest. Fast facts Total costs awarded by CRTC for telecom proceedings so far in 2014: $233,472.90 Biggest payers: Bell $128,564.58 Telus $41,859.05 Rogers $35,354.82 Biggest recipients: Public Interest Advocacy Centre $65,363.35 First Mile Connectivity Consortium $53,088.43 Canadian Association of the Deaf $31,826.16 — With reporting by Derek Abma at dabma@thewirereport.ca and editing by Peter Henderson at phenderson@thewirereport.ca

Bell top payer, PIAC top recipient of CRTC cost awards so far in 2014

News | 09/12/2014 2:31 pm EDT

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