Good afternoon, and thank you very much for inviting us to join you today.
I would like to acknowledge that we are appearing here on the traditional unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe people.
I am pleased to be joined by Scott and Scott, to make things easier or, perhaps, more complicated. Scott Shortliffe is head of broadcasting at the CRTC, and Scott Hutton is head of consumer, analytics and strategy.
Before we get into the committee members' questions, perhaps I could share a bit of context about the CRTC and some of the work we have been doing.
To start with a quick overview, the CRTC is an independent, quasi-judicial tribunal that regulates the communications sector in the public interest. We hold consultations on telecommunications and broadcasting matters, and we make decisions that are based on the public record.
The commission consists of nine members. There's a chairperson, a vice-chairperson for broadcasting and a vice-chairperson for telecommunications, and we have six regional commissioners who are located across the country. The commission is supported by a team of expert staff, who help us make informed decisions. We are moving quickly to make those decisions, because we know that everybody needs certainty with respect to the regulatory regime. At the same time, we're consulting broadly, because we know that better policy happens when we listen to individuals, businesses and organizations that help bring diverse voices into the conversation.
With that in mind, I'd like to talk to you about some of the work that we're doing to give Canadians a chance to tell their stories and to discover, watch and listen to content that interests them.
Through the amended Broadcasting Act, Parliament has mandated us to establish a modern broadcasting framework and ensure that online streaming supports Canadian and indigenous content.
One of the first important decisions we made under the amended act was to require that online streaming services contribute to areas of immediate need, such as local news, French-language content and indigenous content. These contributions were expected to inject roughly $200 million into the broadcasting system each year.
Our work continues. For example, since this decision was published, we've taken steps to support local news, especially in small markets where the options are limited.
Our public consultations with various government authorities are ongoing, and we will be publishing decisions this fall that will introduce significant changes to the broadcasting system.
That is a glimpse into our work on the broadcasting side.
On the telecommunications side, we have heard how critical high-quality Internet and cellphone services are for employment opportunities, education, health care, safety, connecting to loved ones, and so much more. As an example, just last week my colleagues and I met with an indigenous-led non-profit community group in Winnipeg, which shared with us the challenges that its community members are facing because of a lack of what they call “meaningful connectivity”, due, in large part, to affordability issues. We know that this problem is not unique to Winnipeg; we have heard the same thing across the country, and I'm sure that committee members have heard that as well.
We are doing our part to help address Internet and cellphone affordability and connectivity. For Internet services, we provided competitors with the ability to deliver more choice for Canadians, and lower prices, by allowing them to sell plans using the networks of the large telephone companies. More than a dozen companies are already using that new framework to offer new Internet options to consumers. For cellphone services, we are allowing competitors to operate on the networks of large cellphone providers, and competitors are now offering Canadians cellphone plans in new regions. According to StatsCan data, prices for cellphone services fell by 16.7% between 2023 and 2024.
At the same time, we want to ensure that we have a healthy and innovative industry. To that end, we put measures in place to make sure that companies continue to invest in high-quality networks.
That includes fair rates, so that large companies are paid for the cost of building fibre networks, and we delayed competitive access to brand-new fibre until 2029.
As we continue to promote competition and investment in Internet and cell phone services, we are also doing our part to help connect rural, remote and indigenous communities across Canada.
In 2019, the CRTC launched a broadband fund as a small part of a broad effort by federal, provincial and territorial governments to address gaps in connectivity. To date, the CRTC has allocated over $750 million to projects that provide Internet or cell phone services to nearly 50,000 homes in over 290 communities.
This is just some of the work being done in the telecommunications sector.
The third and final point that I'd like to make concerns our consumer protection efforts. Last year, the CRTC created a comprehensive consumer protection action plan.
To implement this plan, we created four public entities designed to prevent unexpected bills, limit charges and make it easier to cross-compare deals and package changes.
This important aspect of our work will remain a key component of the CRTC's action. Stay tuned.
To wrap things up, we are doing work on multiple fronts. I touched on a few of them this afternoon, but the list is long. We are also taking action in areas like international roaming, service outages, and the Online News Act.
We are always listening to what Canadians need, and we know the committee is doing the same. We look forward to hearing your questions and your views.
Thank you again for inviting us to appear before you today.