That's great. Thank you so much.
Obviously we're here today to discuss something super important. As you've seen over the holidays—as I'm sure many of you have had the opportunity to be in your constituencies and, over these past couple of weeks, you've had the opportunity to meet, listen, maybe catch some phone calls, have some coffee chats, work in your constituency offices and hear the struggles that are happening in and around our country—there is some genuine suffering that is happening. Christmastime is a very difficult time for a lot of people.
In my community of Peterborough—Kawartha, we obviously have a lot of suffering happening with increased homelessness, etc., and seniors on fixed incomes.
Today we call this emergency meeting. Conservatives have put forth a motion to resume this committee, because one of the things we can do effectively in our role as the official opposition is to call out the government when it has made promises to Canadians. The promise that was made was that cellphone bills would not increase, and we've seen that not come true right now, basically, with what's happening.
We've put forth a motion, which we're going to be discussing here today. The motion that my colleague Mr. Perkins has put forward is:
That, in relation to recent reports that Rogers will increase customer cell phone bills following a pledge by Rogers CEO Tony Staffieri that “prices are going to come down” as part of the $26 billion Rogers-Shaw merger approved by the Liberal Minister of Innovation, Science, and Industry, after committee experts and the Competition Commissioner warned that the deal would lead to higher prices for consumers, the committee therefore agree to be immediately recalled to undertake a study of up to four meetings, of at least two hours per meeting, to study the impact of the Liberal-approved merger and that these meetings begin at the earliest opportunity and conclude by Friday January 26....
The motion goes on to say more, but I'm going to let my colleague read it into the record because it is his motion that he put forward.
What I want to say right off the hop is that in doing some of this research.... I'm a guest, obviously, on this INDU committee, but when we look at this article, we see that the Liberal industry minister has put this on the record. This is a reference from Melissa Tait at The Globe and Mail. These were his words:
“If Canadians do not begin to see clear and meaningful reductions in price, within a reasonable amount of time, I will have no choice but to seek further legislative and regulatory powers to drive down prices in Canada,” Mr. Champagne said at the time.
I'm assuming that Liberal MPs, NDP MPs and everyone across the board is going to support this motion. The question from these comments, especially in a cost of living crisis when one in four Canadians can't afford to pay their bills—that's according to another article—is, what is a reasonable amount of time? That would be my first question about that: What is that reasonable amount of time?
I'm assuming there is support across all party lines to delve into this to help best support their constituents who are having a really hard time making ends meet, especially in January. For those of you who don't know, this coming Monday is considered “blue Monday”, the most depressing day of the year, when a lot of those credit card bills come due because people had to use credit to pay for Christmas bills. This is going to be a very challenging month, going into the winter months, to try to cover those costs. The least we can do is to ensure that people are not paying more for their cellphones, which many people need.
I'm going to end with this one other comment, because I think it's really important when we talk about cellphones. This was sent to me by Tracey Filtness Smart. She says, “I pay well over $250/mo for myself and my son's phone. We are both disabled and absolutely need this service”. I think it's really important to have on the record that for many people this isn't a luxury; this is a lifeline of communication when we talk about cell service.
She continues, “but it's so hard to budget for it. Having my cellphone saved my life in 2019 as I had an aneurysm rupture and stroke but was able to dial 911 in time to get medivaced out. My phone is always with me for this reason. I pray it doesn't go up in price or I'm not sure how we can continue to pay. I am sure there are many other people in this situation as well. I appreciate you [for putting forth this motion, Mr. Perkins.]”
With that, I'll leave it with my colleagues, but I really urge my colleagues today that this is our duty. We are here as elected representatives to ensure that Canadians have a life that is not of suffering but is rather of the opportunity to live.
Thank you.