Industry Committee on March 1st, 2011

[Tony Clement, Conservative, Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON]

Excuse me, Brian, but I don't think I put myself in that position. We as a department made a factual decision that Globalive was as Canadian as it needed to be under the Telecommunications Act. CRTC disagreed. We are in court because this has been taken to court by one of the other players. It's their right to do that. But it doesn't change our motivation. We have legal reasons to think we're right about the court case. I won't bore you with those details. But behind the legal reasons, there's also the public policy—more competition, new entrants, the idea that people have choices in their wireless, the idea that people are not beholden to a duopoly or an oligopoly. I thought you and I might be agreeing on that, actually.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Well, I do, but the problem is the process that we just went through--the spectrum auction--hasn't created the certainty I think the industry needs.

[Tony Clement, Conservative, Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON]

Well, you know I used to be in business, Brian. There is certainty. Business people create certainty. But you know what? When you're in business, you're not going to get 100% certainty. So they have to suck it up and deal with that. That's why they're in business--

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Well, we're talking about billions of dollars in public money here too. This is an asset for Canadians.

[Tony Clement, Conservative, Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON]

That's fine.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Before the next spectrum auction, is a digital strategy going to come out, or are you going to have the auction before your digital strategy?

[Tony Clement, Conservative, Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON]

I'm sorry, I missed the first part of your question.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

The digital strategy you mentioned in your speech, when is that going to be available for Canadians? We've needed this for a long time. Is that going to be announced--

[Tony Clement, Conservative, Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON]

I mentioned the spring, yes.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

In the spring. Is that going to be before the spectrum auction or after the spectrum auction?

[Tony Clement, Conservative, Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON]

Well, elements of it will be before and elements will pertain to.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Okay. There is already a fight between some of the operators about how that should be done. Wouldn't it make more sense to have a digital strategy and then roll out the spectrum auction to make sure it is going to be by the rules--

[Tony Clement, Conservative, Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON]

I think that's what I'm saying, yes.

But some of it has to do with the actual details of the spectrum auction. So we can have some broad principles that can come out in the spring. We've just closed off the consultation on the 700 megahertz. We've had the consultation on the 2500. So we're going through the submissions that have come in on that, and in due course--pursuant to good public policy--we'll be able to give the industry as well as Canadians our best take on how that should proceed.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

If that auction leads to another lawsuit, do you think that's a good or a bad thing for Canadians?

[Tony Clement, Conservative, Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON]

As I said, no one likes to be in court, but on the other extreme I'm not going to fold like a three-dollar suitcase because somebody is upset that I'm on the side of consumers.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Well, it wasn't actually on the side of consumers, because the CRTC ruled--

[Tony Clement, Conservative, Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON]

I was on the side of consumers--

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

No, actually what you've done through that is you've delayed investment into Canada with this.

[Tony Clement, Conservative, Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON]

No, not at all. What I've done is said--

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

There is greater uncertainty today than there was before. We have this auction available for us, which is precious in terms of a resource, and we're going to risk billions of dollars from it. How do you guarantee that you're not going to--

[Tony Clement, Conservative, Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON]

I don't know where you're coming from on that, Brian. The fact of the matter is, no one is investing in 700 megahertz yet because they don't know what the rules are. But we are asking them for their opinion, which is the good way to do process on public policy. We've just closed off that consultation.

And in the case of the spectrum auction that occurred in 2008, people bid, people got spectrum. They are using the spectrum. There are actually phone sets out there and devices out there that use that spectrum. It's growing. There is more competition. It means that the incumbents have to sharpen their game and sharpen their pencils for the consumer. I can't imagine you're against that.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

No, I'm not against it. What I want to see is a fair, open process, so when we actually get it out there we're not going to have a situation where we end up having lawsuits again--

[Tony Clement, Conservative, Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON]

Me too.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Well, it's because of your actions as a minister, overturning the CRTC again--

[Tony Clement, Conservative, Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON]

No, I think it's because I was--