Industry committee  Thank you again, Mr. Minister. I have just a couple of quick ones, actually. As we know, local phones are the only part of telecommunications that are still regulated. A little earlier I touched on long distance deregulation, which happened many years ago--a little bit of background.

Industry committee  Yes, it's just a quick one. I go back to your comments on the CRTC and long distance. It was a big issue at the time whether those of us in rural communities especially would get the benefit of those cuts, which are good for the consumer, and they have. I'm wondering now what role, in a deregulated telephone market, the CRTC is going to play.

Industry committee  Thank you, Mr. Minister, for coming today. It's good to have you back to our committee. I'll just go back a little bit, if you'll allow me. I come from a riding in southwestern Ontario, basically rural and small towns. My largest town is 14,000 people, and I have about 55 other towns that make up my riding, along with many who are in rural areas.

Industry committee  Will that deregulation, then, in your opinion, help those customers?

Industry committee  I have just a quick question. The whole telecommunications field is changing so quickly, and you've made reference to that a number of times today. In fact, we're sort of surprised to hear you talk about 5% to 10% of some areas where they actually don't use their phones, they use wireless.

Industry committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for coming out today to be part of our discussions on telecommunications. It's been an interesting learning experience, maybe more for some of us than for others. I have some pointed questions, and some of those you've referred to. The win-back issue has come up at every turn about the unfairness that it will create in some respects.

Industry committee  If you go back a few years, back to 1993 when long-distance telephone rates got deregulated, when that deregulation was brought forward the concern at that time was that it's “the same government that keeps on spinning the same tired line that deregulation is going to save consumers money.

Industry committee  We've had a lot of discussion around the CRTC and the Competition Bureau in terms of the roles that they should play, and about the Competition Bureau not being effective in terms of being able to react in time. I'm wondering if you could comment quickly about the role of each of those in terms of their effectiveness in terms of this deregulation.

Industry committee  For the second part of the question, I want to go back to the report itself in terms of the panel. You had mentioned earlier in response to a question that you had some 200 submissions to the panel, plus public forums, and then you did some travel to other countries and you mentioned a handful or two of those that you had gone to.

Industry committee  Even with some of those restrictions they have over there, they've still moved ahead with deregulation.

Industry committee  One of the things that has been brought up by some folks is that they fear the deregulation of the local telephone services will lead to a re-monopolization of the industry. Do you have a comment, or do you agree with that?

Industry committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman; and thank you, Mr. Intven, for coming today. You mentioned in your presentation that Canada had a strong market not because of the mandated wholesale access policies, but because of the competition from facilities-based cable companies. Do we need a strong and expandable mandated access regime to encourage more competition?

Industry committee  I was going to get some comments on it from some of the others. Just one. In our position, we've asked for support for Bill C-41in terms of the competitive productive practices. The opposition obviously is not supporting that. We want to get it moved as quickly as possible. If it were passed, do you believe that would maintain the fair practices in the telecommunication market?

Industry committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Welcome back to a number of you who have been here before. I look forward to the questions that are still to come, even though I guess we are running out of time. I want to go to you, Mr. Engelhart, regarding the winbacks. It's been estimated in every telecommunications market in Canada that it's really about prohibiting the ability to call back, as you've mentioned, within 90 days.

Industry committee  You've been in business, you're actually a substantial company, I think, worth $23 billion. Are you concerned about regulatory protection to keep you competitive?