Canadian Heritage committee  Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. Our presentation will indeed be very short and to the point. We are the fourth-largest cable system operator in Canada. Our service footprint covers many local communities in Ontario and Quebec. We offer a wide range of bro

Industry committee  I would add that we are on record as saying it really doesn't make any difference for administrative monetary penalties to be added to situations of abuse of dominance, for the very simple reason that history shows that this particular tool under the Competition Act as it exists-

Industry committee  I can speak briefly to that. From our vantage point, the policy direction is out. I don't think we've come here to say that we should move backwards and try to undo what has been done. We voiced concerns that the policy direction, in the way it was drafted and brought about, mi

Industry committee  I don't want to give the committee members the impression that our company and the industry is suggesting that we postpone liberalization of telecommunications and deregulation indefinitely.

Industry committee  That is certainly not the message that we want to give you. However, on behalf of Cogeco Cable Inc., we are telling you today, as we did on October 19, that we are concerned about the way that these orders are made. Our company as well as many other parties—not only industry pe

Industry committee  I think that we need to have an understanding of what is meant by the relevant geographic market. Competition agencies have a method for defining geographic markets throughout the world. This is not something that is used in Canada alone. We could spend a great deal of time deba

Industry committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. Thank you for this opportunity to provide Cogeco Cable's views on the government's proposed order varying the CRTC's decision on regulatory forbearance for local access telephone services of incumbent telephone companies in

Industry committee  To add to Mr. Lavoie's remarks, I think we share the opinion that an effort must be made to simplify matters for the content media and for the regulated media. Furthermore, however, there's this entire and very interesting matter that has been raised—some rightly say, while other

Industry committee  I totally agree with Jim's position. But I should add that we've just purchased a cable telecommunications company in Portugal, and we've been able to do this for the simple reason that throughout Europe it's the policy that there should be no foreign ownership restrictions for w

Industry committee  Well, let me react in this way. The big concern we would have at COGECO with this direction is that it's not going to be very obvious, whether to Canadians in general or even to the commission itself, that it has more clarity and focused guidance on how to implement this transit

Industry committee  I don't think we can set a deadline, and I'll tell you why. What's always important—this is a fundamental concept of competition—is what's happening in the relevant market. What's a relevant market? Let's take an example. Let's take the case of a place like Roberval. What's impor

Industry committee  If varies, but we're talking about a period of time that is limited in practice. It can probably be stated in terms of a certain number of months or, perhaps in some cases, a few years.

Industry committee  There's no absolutely universal solution. There will probably always be specific situations in small markets where competition will take longer than in others, but, in general, what is necessary, first and foremost, are clear rules and assurances that, when a new arrival invests

Industry committee  I think that, in a system like the one that's currently in place, where there are no new players, there is still a control over prices. That's the current state of affairs, when a local market isn't deregulated. When new arrivals penetrate one of those markets, when competition i

Industry committee  We're in a rapidly changing situation, in which competitive services are being added almost continuously. You only have to read the announcements of the new arrivals, in press releases. Announcements are regularly being made. We're in an accelerated transition phase. So we can't