Industry committee  First, there has to be access to the infrastructure. That's extremely important. Unfortunately, we are sometimes blocked because the infrastructure, meaning the poles, belongs to Bell Canada. As we said earlier, programs do exist. The federal government has one. Quebec has the Régions branchées program, with which we are working to serve what I too will call the “backwaters”, because everyone knows what it means.

Industry committee  I will repeat that the CRTC has tools, including a mechanism that allows them to call in witnesses and provide details of the problematic situation that we have to deal with. To this point, the CRTC has not seen fit to do that. Clearly, more pressure needs to be applied. It is important to point out that Vidéotron is not the only telecommunications company affected.

Industry committee  Vidéotron has taken a lot of steps. Let me ask Jean-François Pruneau to answer that question.

Industry committee  First of all, I'd like to thank you for your trust and loyalty. You've seen that the Helix service works with the remote control and voice recognition. I also have this service, coincidentally, and I think it's excellent. You talked about access to Internet service, but there are other products that telecommunications companies are called upon to provide to consumers.

Industry committee  You are right to mention that. In my presentation, I was able to describe the problem with the resellers. For decades, Quebec and Canada have benefited from a first-class telecommunications network. I feel that it is extremely important for the productivity of our businesses, of which you have many in your constituency.

Industry committee  The government also wondered about the basis of the decision, that is whether the CRTC had used the appropriate tools. The point we wanted to make is that we are not necessarily against resellers existing, but the conditions under which they exist must be fair and equitable. Unfortunately, the decision that was made resulted in those conditions not being met.

Industry committee  Yes, you're right about the Quebec government. As I mentioned, it intervenes, but without any real ammunition, since this is an area of federal jurisdiction. This means that the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, or CRTC, or the industry, meets with Bell Canada in a systematic way.

Industry committee  I think Mr. Field also mentioned that. I would suggest that using a single regulatory authority would make the process much more efficient. Because these are technical issues, the more people involved, the more complicated it will be. Ultimately, this will help to slow down implementation.

Industry committee  I'll try to use an example. There was a cartel in the telecom business. They had three operators. Former minister Prentice, who was the minister at that time, decided that there would be competition. They set aside spectrum. From there, you've been seeing other telecom companies being wireless operators.

Industry committee  It is with great pleasure that I will answer your question. I'll then ask my colleague Jean-François Pruneau to give you more details. As you probably know, Bell Canada had a monopoly for several years: it owned Télébec and had acquired Cablevision. It provided cable service, Internet access and wired telephone service, not to mention wireless service.

Industry committee  I guess the important point is—and it shows throughout the pandemic that Canada has been living—there was no such telecom company that was not able to offer a decent and robust service. This was very important for all people living in Canada, but also for the companies. It was important also because in this digital economy, productivity through the usage of network is of great importance.

Industry committee  Thank you for the question, Mr. Lemire. I did mention this problem earlier. It's been around for decades, ever since Quebecor acquired Vidéotron in 2000. From the very beginning, the long-time operator has shown a real desire, to maintain its monopoly or, at the very least, its dominant position.

Industry committee  Allow me to use a popular expression used by another politician and say, “we'll see.” Our words aren't necessarily as peremptory. The processes are extremely complicated, lengthy and tedious, and anything goes in blocking access to the poles, unfortunately. The good news is that the Premier of Quebec rose in the National Assembly—in the blue room—to question the president of Bell Canada a few months ago.

Industry committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. Good morning, hon. members. My name is Pierre Karl Péladeau, and I'm the president and chief executive officer of Quebecor Media. Accompanying me today is Jean-François Pruneau, who is the president and chief executive officer of Vidéotron. I'd like to thank you for inviting us to present our point of view.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes. What I've been seeing, and again I didn't really have the time to completely think about all this.... I was astonished by the abuse that it has been running on false and malicious information. I've never seen this. Again, we will need to find out what would be the follow-up we will give to this.