Evidence of meeting #114 for Industry, Science and Technology in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was wireless.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:25 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Telus Communications Inc.
I would have to get back to you with the specifics on that component of the bill.
12:25 p.m.
Conservative
Rick Perkins Conservative South Shore—St. Margarets, NS
If you could do it in writing, that would be great.
Secondly, you talked about the issue of the financing of phones.
Our phones have gotten very expensive. They used to be a few hundred dollars—$500. Now some of them are $2,000 or more. I believe the government policy is that you can't finance them directly in a plan longer than 24 months.
Is that correct?
12:30 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Telus Communications Inc.
That is correct.
12:30 p.m.
Conservative
Rick Perkins Conservative South Shore—St. Margarets, NS
Do other jurisdictions limit it to 24 months? Does that not provide more relief for consumers, since most people, I assume, aren't changing their phone every two years? They're keeping them a little longer now.
12:30 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Telus Communications Inc.
Since the phones have gone from, as you say, a few hundred dollars to up to $2,000, extending the financing period beyond 24 months would indeed be extremely helpful as it relates to affordability.
To answer your question directly, that type of thing is normal in other jurisdictions.
12:30 p.m.
Conservative
Rick Perkins Conservative South Shore—St. Margarets, NS
Okay.
Mr. Bibic, I'll ask you the same question on roaming and the locked-in, 24-month limit on cellphone financing.
I believe you don't make money off that. You don't finance. You don't make profit off the phones. Is that true?
12:30 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, BCE Inc.
I echo Mr. Entwistle's answer on amortizing handsets over more than two years and the positive impact that would have for the consumer.
12:30 p.m.
Conservative
12:30 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, BCE Inc.
We eat the cost of the financing.
12:30 p.m.
Conservative
Rick Perkins Conservative South Shore—St. Margarets, NS
You're essentially financing the phones for consumers.
What would be a preferable time limit, if there had to be one?
12:30 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Telus Communications Inc.
I see no downside whatsoever to extending the financing term to 36 months. We had it previously. I think that would be decidedly in the interest of consumers, particularly given how expensive smart phone devices have become.
12:30 p.m.
Conservative
Rick Perkins Conservative South Shore—St. Margarets, NS
Thank you.
Mr. Staffieri, can I ask you on what date Rogers started negotiating and offering a job to former Liberal minister Navdeep Bains?
12:30 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Rogers Communications Inc.
I can't recall the specific date on that, but I'd be happy to provide it.
12:30 p.m.
Conservative
Rick Perkins Conservative South Shore—St. Margarets, NS
I would very much appreciate that.
To let you know, the announcement of his job was the day after his ministerial cooling-off period. I assume the announcement and the beginning of negotiations on his salary didn't happen on the same day.
12:30 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Rogers Communications Inc.
As I said, I'll provide the relevant dates to you and the committee. However, what I can assure you—
12:30 p.m.
Conservative
Rick Perkins Conservative South Shore—St. Margarets, NS
I'll turn the rest of my time over to MP Williams.
12:30 p.m.
Conservative
Ryan Williams Conservative Bay of Quinte, ON
Mr. Staffieri, the Rogers-Shaw merger came with some government conditions underpinning the takeover of Shaw Communications. The first conditions were creating 3,000 jobs in western Canada in the first five years, spending $2.5 billion enhancing and expanding 5G coverage, and spending $1 billion to connect rural, remote and indigenous communities.
How far in are you, in terms of completing those conditions?
12:30 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Rogers Communications Inc.
With respect to the commitments we made, we are tracking ahead on those, in terms of both the investments we committed to them and employment. You would have seen, immediately on the closing of the Shaw merger, that we repatriated jobs back to Canada, with most of those jobs going to western Canada.
As we continue to grow our investments in infrastructure, the job numbers continue to climb.
12:30 p.m.
Conservative
Ryan Williams Conservative Bay of Quinte, ON
Do you have the exact number of jobs created so far in western Canada?
12:30 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Rogers Communications Inc.
We'll provide those as part of our regular reporting. If the committee wants those in advance, we would be happy to provide that.
12:30 p.m.
Conservative
Ryan Williams Conservative Bay of Quinte, ON
Thank you.
Do you have any layoffs that you know of, so far? Have there been any layoffs in western Canada?
12:30 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Rogers Communications Inc.
As I said earlier, and we've been very transparent, to the extent that there have been duplicate roles in the coming together with Shaw, those roles have been eliminated. However, net-net, we continue to be a growth company. We're always looking for opportunities for individuals who were impacted to move to other areas of the company, or give them the choice to voluntarily decide to leave the company.
12:30 p.m.
Conservative
Ryan Williams Conservative Bay of Quinte, ON
Just to clarify, there have been layoffs, is that correct?
12:30 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Rogers Communications Inc.
Duplicate roles have been removed.
12:30 p.m.
Conservative
Ryan Williams Conservative Bay of Quinte, ON
Thank you.
I'd like to circle back to a comment made by the vice-president of Videotron when he was in front of this committee. He talked about how it seemed when the deal was first made. What was interesting when we went through the testimony was that you did get to pick Videotron. You picked Videotron to be the buyer of Freedom Mobile. There is talk now, and a fight with CRTC tooth and nail, to actually start competing with you.
Do you foresee that you're going to start working alongside Videotron, as you stated you would once this deal went through?