PIAC still over $100K short of Feb. goal despite costs awards

With under a month left in its donation drive and three recent cost awards, the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) is still over $100,000 short of its goal of staying afloat by February, according to its executive director John Lawford. The Wire Report reported in November that the group would need $50,000 by February to keep its doors open. That figure would be on top of the expected $150,000 in outstanding costs awards, which Lawford said in an interview Monday was already something they factored into their balance sheet. “The money that's coming in on costs awards has long ago been accounted for,” said Lawford. “It's internalized in the financial statements. It doesn't do any ‘good’ now except for cash flow in the immediate moment.” Lawford and PIAC have put out public calls for funding to make up that $50,000 difference reported in November. Private donations have been made to a tune of over $15,000 so far, according to Lawford, but he did not sound optimistic about reaching the $50,000 goal by the end of December. “If there $50,000 in — what I'll call free money or donations with no strings attached — that would definitely get us through February. If there's less than that, we'll see,” said Lawford. “Nobody should be under the illusion that just because we're getting the money we're owed...that it helps,” said Lawford. The costs awards come after PIAC and the Equitable Internet Coalition (EIC) had participated in multiple telecom decisions. The CRTC granted the groups a combined $85,543.55 in costs based on their work, according to two rulings late last week and another on Monday. This week, the CRTC granted the EIC, of which PIAC is a member, $70,050.26 in costs. This was based on its work in a proceeding which effectively banned most differential pricing by internet service providers (ISPs) in spring 2017, according to the Monday decision. PIAC and the EIC submitted comments which explained how it met the criteria for costs under Section 68 of the CRTC’s Rules of Procedure, assisted the commission in better understanding matters and acted responsibly. The CRTC also set the cost award for a suspended Part 1 application in 2016 — which included questions of the constitutionality of the Province of Quebec blocking online gambling sites — at $14,140.46, on Friday. The figure was lower than the requested $22,101.78 because of debate over the billing of PIAC’s main legal counsel in this case, its executive director John Lawford, at external or internal rates. It would be “inconsistent” with encouraging public advocacy during commission proceedings “to deny or significantly reduce PIAC’s disbursements,” the CRTC wrote. “Nonetheless, in future cases, if procedural requirements for Commission proceedings are unclear to parties, it may be prudent for those parties to seek additional guidance before incurring uncommon expenses related to such procedural requirements,” it added. Also Friday, the CRTC awarded PIAC $1,352.83 in a separate decision involving BCE Inc.’s request for a reprieve from wireless access service, which allows mobile wireless carriers to interconnect to a local exchange carrier. The CRTC denied the application in a May decision. Lawford pointed to a November study by the Forum for Research and Policy in Communications (FRPC), which found that the time it takes for decision on costs awards has doubled since 2013. The wait was an average of 3.7 months in 2013 and increased to 8.6 months in 2017, according to the FRPC report. Telecoms including Telus Corp., Bell and Rogers Communications Inc. have been ordered to cover the costs incurred by the advocacy groups.

PIAC still over $100K short of Feb. goal despite costs awards

Brief | December 4, 2017

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PIAC still over $100K short of Feb. goal despite costs awards

Brief | December 4, 2017

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