Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you to our witnesses for being here.
I have no apology to make to Bell with regard to any emotion. I remember one of my first committee days here when the Bell CEO—Michael Sabia at that time—was an obstacle for pay equity for women in the union fighting to get the remuneration that was awarded to them, with its taking many, many years longer than it should have. It was very disappointing. There also were the deferral accounts, where Bell overcharged by far more any other provider, with almost up to $1 billion that had to be remitted to Canadians, including persons with disabilities. It fought by itself; as the rest of industry fell in line to rebate Canadians, Bell continued that type of behaviour for a long period of time.
I really am not surprised by what we heard here with regard to its culture of employment and how it wants to continue to receive a lot of different government programs and services—which is fine; they're there for anybody out there. However, at the same time, the mere threat of the CRTC to them would actually disable their commitment to Canadians for rural and remote in the future, and that is something that's alarming and needs to be taken into context.
Mr. Noyes, you bring up a really good point in being here. It's people in rural and remote areas that haven't even connected quite a bit, but it's even people who are getting disconnected in the cities because of the affordability issue. One thing that we, as New Democrats, proposed is to use the spectrum auction to guarantee low-cost services from those who bid at the spectrum auction. The spectrum auction has netted Canada's coffers around $22 billion in the last 20 years. That money has not been all sent back into service provision.
Is that something that you think ACORN would support: having the next spectrum auction with the inclusion, similar to a request for proposals, that we actually make sure there are going to be some low-cost provisions from those that are going to use the public airwaves? That is the spectrum auction. Again, that is a public asset. I'm wondering whether ACORN has a position on that.