Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and good afternoon.
I'm here representing Access Communications Co-operative Limited of Saskatchewan. I'm here today because I want local competition to flourish in every part of Canada, including all regions of Saskatchewan. I do not believe the local competition should develop only in the major metropolitan areas where the incumbents compete against well-capitalized cable companies such as Rogers, Shaw, or Vidéotron. The government's goal should be to ensure that all Canadians benefit from competition, regardless of where they live.
With that in mind, I have serious concerns about the approach to deregulation that has been proposed by the federal government and Minister Bernier. Access Communications provides cable television and Internet service to customers in more than 30 communities in Saskatchewan, and we face considerable competition in these markets. Increasingly, our primary competitor has been our own provincial government through its crown corporation, SaskTel. With the support of Saskatchewan taxpayers, SaskTel is able to offer subscribers a complete range of communication services, including local telephone, cable, wireless, and Internet access.
For competitive reasons, Access made the decision and the considerable investment last year to enter the local telephone market. In making that decision, we relied on the fact that the CRTC had put in place a framework for forbearance that would prevent an incumbent telephone company from using its market power to stamp out competition. We launched our telephone service for Regina two weeks ago, and we're encouraged by the response we've received to date.
We are concerned, however, that our attempt to provide choice to the residents of Regina, and hopefully our other markets in Saskatchewan, will be unfairly inhibited by the market power of SaskTel. Until two weeks ago, SaskTel had been the sole provider of local service in Regina. It continues to hold a monopoly over every other community in Saskatchewan, with the exception of Saskatoon. In this environment where a crown corporation is starting with 100% of the market share, a fair and sustainable competitive market will only develop if mechanisms are in place to prevent it from eliminating its competitors. The existence of regulatory mechanisms designed to limit market power are vital in the smaller cities, like Regina, and even more critical in smaller cities like Yorkton, Estevan, and Weyburn.
Sustainable competition simply cannot develop in these smaller markets where a 100-year-old government-owned monopoly has the ability to crush competitors. With this in mind, I'm urging the government to ensure that a market dominance test for forbearance continues to apply in markets outside the 10 most populated metropolitan areas, and particularly in the province of Saskatchewan.
In addition, I believe win-back and promotional restrictions should be retained in those markets until this market test is met. Without effective regulation that limits the ILECs' market power, sustainable competition will simply not develop in my province. I believe all Canadians should benefit from competition regardless of where they live.
Thank you.