Thank you very much, Chair, and thank you so much for the invitation and the opportunity to come back and appear before the committee.
My name is Michael Geist. I'm a law professor at the University of Ottawa, where I hold the Canada research chair in Internet and e-commerce law, and I'm a member of the Centre for Law, Technology and Society. I appear in a personal capacity, representing only my own views.
To the best of my recollection, a three-minute opening statement is the shortest I've experienced for a committee appearance. In this instance, however, I think it's appropriate, as it doesn't take more than three minutes to understand what is at play and at stake with the proposed Rogers-Shaw merger.
To start, I'd like to make three points.
First—and I think this is stating the obvious—the deal will result in higher prices and less competition in the Canadian wireless market. There's no need to overthink this. Removing a company that some have touted as the best chance at a viable national fourth carrier leaves some of Canada's biggest markets—notably, Ontario, Alberta, and B.C.—without a much-needed competitor.
While some seek to justify it or explain it away, the simple reality is that Canadians already pay some of the highest prices in the world for wireless services. If this merger is approved, the situation is likely to get worse. Indeed, when Rogers promises that it will not raise prices for Shaw/Freedom mobile customers for three years, it effectively signals that it will be raising them as soon as the clock runs out on that timeline.
Second, this represents a major wireless policy failure. Successive governments have pledged to address high wireless costs, but have often instead taken half-measures or even backtracked at opposition from the incumbent providers.
The CRTC is little better, with the current leadership having dispensed with the prioritization of consumers. It's the CRTC that initially rejected mandated MVNOs. It was the CRTC that signalled it was supportive of increasing consumer broadband costs with new levies in its “Harnessing Change” report. It was the CRTC that sparked a consumer group boycott of the development of an Internet code that was ostensibly designed to protect consumers.
Third, what should the committee be recommending? The preferable choice is no merger, since it's likely to result in lost jobs, higher prices and less competition. If approved with conditions, the grab bag of goodies proposed by Rogers is really just asking consumers to ultimately pay for rural and remote connectivity initiatives. We need that connectivity, but funding it through a harmful merger is not the right way to do it. Instead, the focus should be on competition, particularly wireless competition.
For the purposes of this transaction, I think that means full divestiture of the wireless assets. More broadly, it means doubling down on policies designed to address wireless competition and, in particular, support for mandated MVNOs that would help change the competitive landscape, as well as efforts to increase foreign entrants into the marketplace.
I look forward to your questions.