Industry Committee on Feb. 3rd, 2011

[Konrad W. von Finckenstein]

Everything would depend on who your provider is. For example, if you were a Bell client, nothing would change. You are already subject to...

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

I would simply like to make a distinction, to ensure that people understand. According to the figures that we presented earlier, approximately 9 million clients are covered by Internet providers in Canada. You stated that a total of 570,000 clients are served by small providers. I would like to know what percentage of this group is really covered by the recent decision. This 6% is affected because these are small provider clients, right?

[Konrad W. von Finckenstein]

Only the heavy users and not all small ISP clients.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

How many people would that represent?

[Konrad W. von Finckenstein]

I do not know. I do not have these figures. You should ask Teksavvy this question, for instance, in order to find out which percentage of its clientele will have problems.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

In the document that you just read, you say the following:In light of these requests and the evident concerns expressed by Canadians, the Commission has decided to: 1. delay the implementation of usage-based billing for wholesale consumers by at least 60 days.

Were these concerns and requests not evident before you made the decision? I am trying to understand what has changed since yesterday. Is it due to public pressure? We do not really know how many people will be affected by this decision, but if public pressure represents 570,000 individuals...

[Konrad W. von Finckenstein]

First, we received two requests for extensions.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

From Bell Canada?

[Konrad W. von Finckenstein]

From Bell Canada and one other company. It is Bell Canada that initiated this entire process, made representations to us to create the entire usage and billing system. Bell created this entire problem, asking for a 60-day extension because, clearly, people were not ready for this.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

I can understand that these people are asking you to reconsider your decision. Given all of the advertising they have received over the last week, small providers will probably have many more customers by next week. In fact, they are getting incredible publicity throughout the country.

[Konrad W. von Finckenstein]

That is possible.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

I should be in business as a small service provider.

You yourselves decided to revisit the decision, which I commend. You are here before politicians representing those who pay the bills. Obviously, these people do not want to see higher bills. Would I be wrong in saying that over the last few days this issue has exploded exponentially, far beyond the number of people actually affected by the decision? Am I mistaken?

[Konrad W. von Finckenstein]

No, not at all. You are absolutely right. It is a minority. Approximately 500,000 people.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

But that is a lot, I would say. One is already too many.

[Konrad W. von Finckenstein]

I do not know what percentage of these people will really be affected. Regardless, these people clearly like the Internet, know how to use it and have used it to elicit many reactions.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Is...

[Konrad W. von Finckenstein]

But we have already seen this in...

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

Thank you, Mr. Généreux.

Ms. Guay you may have the floor for five minutes.

[Monique Guay, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I am pleased to be here today in the place of my colleague.

I have many questions to ask. I am pleased about your decision to take the time to reconsider your previous decision. You have decided upon 60 days. I suppose you will also take this time to have discussions with the government, which does not agree at all with your decision, if I am not mistaken. You must be aware of this.

[Konrad W. von Finckenstein]

You are wrong. We are an arm's length organization and have no discussions with government.

[Monique Guay, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

But the government does have oversight...

[Konrad W. von Finckenstein]

The government provides us formal directions, as it did in the case that we have already discussed.

[Monique Guay, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

But the government does have oversight of the CRTC, Mr. Finckenstein.

You said there are not many heavy users. If there are so few of them, why is it that late Wednesday evening, yesterday evening, over 358,000 people had signed a petition launched online by OpenMedia.ca? This petition called on the government to overturn your decision. There were 358,000 signatures in one evening. That is a large number of people.

[Konrad W. von Finckenstein]

Yes, I know. That is the beauty of the Internet. You can reach out to people quite easily. You can instantly create a community of interest among people who share the same opinion.

[Monique Guay, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

To recruit 358,000 people in one evening is rather difficult, Mr. von Finckenstein. We know how petitions work, because we table them in the House on a regular basis.