Mr. Speaker, the hon. member for Windsor West raises very good questions as to whether or not smart phones should be considered essential services. I know we are also taking a look at the question of whether broadband should be considered an essential service. It is a big issue for many people in rural communities.
On the latter question, we know that the CRTC is examining that right now. We are waiting for its decision. I will not attempt to prejudge, as it is going through hearings on that.
To the former question though, this is something we have to discuss. To what level are we able to discuss it? There are important public policy questions that come into play as to whether or not, if we do consider it an essential service, we would still get the same kind of competitive pricing that the hon. member was talking about. If we look back to what happened when we considered basic telephone service an essential service, there were minimum fees that were attached and applied to all personal accounts across the country. That might mitigate against the honourable ends that my hon. colleague is trying to achieve.