moved for leave to introduce Bill C-555, An Act to provide clarity and fairness in the provision of telecommunication services in Canada.
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate having 30 seconds or so to speak to this bill, which would direct the Minister of Industry to amend the conditions for PCS and cellular spectrum licences to include a prohibition against the levying of any additional fee or charge that would not part of a subscriber's monthly fee or monthly plan rate.
It also would require the government to direct the CRTC to gather information and seek input and make a major report on competition, consumer protection and consumer choice issues relating to telecommunication services in Canada.
I hope this goes some distance in addressing what many Canadians believe to be unfairness and a lack of transparency in the charging for services that are occurring on a monthly basis, including system access fees, which the federal government ceased requiring to be collected by the telephone companies some 21 years ago. Still today 18.5 million Canadian cellphone users are paying monthly charges. We intend to address this through the bill.
(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)