Conservatives and NDP united for enforcement of wholesale rates

Opposition parties that normally hold differing views on any given issue are finding themselves agreeing on some telecom-adjacent files in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, with both the Conservatives and NDP calling for the government to support lower wholesale internet rates and speed up rural broadband rollouts. Industry critics for both parties say the Liberal government should enforce the CRTC’s wholesale rates decision from August that slashed the price incumbents can charge resellers for access to wholesale broadband. There is an ongoing Federal Court of Appeal challenge that has put the brakes on the enforcement of the rates. "There's some issues that there should be partisan unanimity on. And I feel like we're getting to that point on ," Conservative Industry critic Michelle Rempel Garner said in an interview with The Wire Report. “I think that access to the internet is a catalyst for inequality in Canada. And certainly the COVID crisis has exacerbated that, or maybe put a magnifying glass on it in a way that it hasn’t before. And I think the wholesale rate decision is an interesting example of that.” That the NDP and the Conservative critics are calling for the same intervention is an irony not lost on NDP MP Brian Masse. “It's long off the days of Maxime Bernier," Masse said when asked about the Conservative approach to wholesale rate regulation, referring to the free market-centric CRTC policy directive from Bernier during his time as industry minister under Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Masse said he agrees with Rempel Garner that enforcement of the August wholesale rates -- rather than an emergency interim regime like one called for by TekSavvy Solutions Inc. -- is the more desirable course of action. "It’s not just about getting access, and getting access at a stable rate, and getting access at a stable rate at a good rate. There should be an expectation that that's actually going to lower prices for consumers as well," Masse said. “I think the enforcement is gonna guide us to better long-term stability.” Rempel Garner had called on Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains in early April to enforce the August decision by the CRTC. “I don’t think that it benefits competition or access if we're supporting a regulatory regime without question that could push new entrants out of the market,” Rempel Garner said. Rempel Garner also acknowledged that calling for government regulatory intervention into the wholesale broadband market is not a typical Conservative policy plank. “The typical parameters for how each political party addresses those issues and what is politically saleable in terms of the various lobbying positions of all the players are largely being done away with in this conversation,” she said. Both Rempel Garner and Masse are also calling for faster roll outs of rural broadband funding. “I think a lot of people have been surprised at the approach our party has taken in recent months on this,” she said. “My partisan lens is: we can’t be at an economic disadvantage as a country especially as we move into a 5G operating environment because we've failed to do something as basic as ensure access for every part of the country and every part of the economy.” “The government has not moved quickly on this,” Rempel Garner said. Referencing the comments by minister for women and gender equality and rural economic development Maryam Monsef, first reported by The Wire Report, that the government would be speeding up its rural broadband roll out, Masse said that the government is “saying yes they'll speed it up, because quite frankly they can't slow it down. That isn't an option. It’s not even possible to go any slower than we are right now.” Masse also reiterated his long standing call to use the revenue from the spectrum auctions to fund rural broadband. “We should have been 10 years ahead of where we are right now. Where's the 20 billion?” Masse said. “We're going at where the market dictates at the moment with a patchwork or broken programs that have to be used with other types of government agencies or third parties to make it even mildly successful.” — With reporting by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

Conservatives and NDP united for enforcement of wholesale rates

News | May 5, 2020

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Conservatives and NDP united for enforcement of wholesale rates

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