Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to all of you for coming to the important hearings today.
I would like to start off for the viewers by outlining that companies, your companies, are built on leasing limited national assets of radio frequencies owned by Canadians. You've been given by Canadians the privilege of access protected from foreign competition. With that comes a responsibility to Canadians to provide service to them at a reasonable cost. The result of this privileged and protected position is that Canadians pay amongst the highest cellphone and Internet prices in the world, and your companies reap monopolistic profits.
Rogers' cellphone net profit margin is 62%, and Videotron's is 65%. Your profit margin shows that it's not the size of the country and the small population that drive up cellphone prices. There is less competition today than there was 10 years ago. Your companies bought up your competitors. As part of your privileged position, Liberals have enabled your lobbying access to officials during the decision-making process at an unprecedented level.
Mr. Staffieri, as CEO of Rogers during this transaction, you personally met with the Department of Industry more than 60 times, five of those times with the minister. I would like to know if you were negotiating the deal directly with the department.