If I may, I'll go first.
It's a very important issue, obviously. It's something our members support. Let me just say that competitors are not just competing on price. There are non-price factors that they compete on as well. Some of our members, for example, respond to the language needs of different community groups in Canada.
The one thing this government and this committee shouldn't do is recommend that a monopoly is somehow needed to solve this problem, because it hasn't worked. The monopoly isn't working. We're talking about these very large companies that were found by the CRTC to have engaged in misleading and aggressive sales practices with their customers in urban areas. There has to be a certain amount of scrutiny on the motives these companies face. With the right regulatory measures, which is wholesale open access, there will be a business case. You will be able to let the smaller competitors ride on those networks.
On these questions about rural investment, these companies that are taking the Canada emergency wage subsidy and paying dividends at the same time, yet earning abnormal rates of return, it's the business model you have to be skeptical of and how they're aligning their priorities. It hasn't been serving the rural and remote areas. It's the smaller competitors that our association represents. Using a model that is tried, tested and true from the CRTC, that we suggest will work....
If I may, when the CRTC appears before you, I would ask them when they will be making their decision on mobile virtual network operators. That is really what's holding us back right now. They won't give us an answer. It's very unusual for a regulator to take such a long amount of time for an issue that everyone understands to be so important. We have zero indication in this industry of when this will happen.