Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
It's pretty wild to think that this is the third time we are here with the wrong guest before us and that this individual, Mr. Staffieri, thinks this is okay.
As Ms. Rempel Garner was saying, it gets back to respect for authority, respect for these institutions we have within Parliament, and respect for Canadians at the end of the day. It's respect for the person who is paying the bills so that this CEO has the ability to live the life he lives and take the salary he takes. This is the way he's going to treat his customer base, the rest of Canadians and Parliament.
It's disrespectful. I feel disrespected. I know my colleagues do. I can't even imagine how the individuals who have been caught off guard and surprised by the changes to their bills feel about this.
The fact is that this guy has been afforded the opportunity to come multiple times to committee and try to clarify or explain what's going on and what the business decision is. As a Blue Jays fan, I was hoping he would come to the committee and tell us they're trying to make a full-court press on Juan Soto, but I don't think that's the reason and the rationale for this. I think it's a completely different thing. It's just absolutely wild.
I used to work in telecoms. There was a point in time when the company I worked for sold people an item and then I had to go and set it up. I got there; I went through all the work; the person tried it out, and they said, “Well, this isn't working the way I was promised it would work.” That was frustrating, as a person working on the ground, but the company took the initiative to try to be more transparent in the sales process and be really up front with the consumer by telling them, “Look, you've bought this. This is what you can potentially expect,” because at the time, they were offering an “up to” service instead of a guaranteed rate service.
Being more transparent with consumers is what this boils down to when it comes to the original issue at hand, which is the cost of bilking people who are in a fixed-term contract for extra money every month without even telling them. Imagine the callousness of not even sending them a month's notice or whatever, saying their bills are going to go up by this much a month. There wasn't even advance notice.
Again, that is so disrespectful to the people who are paying those bills. They're the people who signed on the dotted line, thinking that for this much money, they were locking in and guaranteeing a price. To find out that's not the case is crazy. It's absolutely crazy.
I think this is absolutely appropriate, because the level of disrespect the CEO is showing to Parliament, to Canadians, to ratepayers and to this institution is unbelievable. The original motion that Mr. Masse put forward is good, and I think this amendment strengthens it. It's important that we vote in favour of this amendment. I look forward to doing so.
Thanks, Chair.