Industry committee  Thank you. MTS Allstream is a leading national communications solutions provider. In Manitoba, we are the incumbent, and we now face competition from Shaw. We are unique among the former monopoly providers in that over half our revenues come from having committed to a growth str

Industry committee  I think, to start off quickly, I would say that I agree completely that the problem with the AMPs approach is that there is nothing remedial about it. If you had a competition act that actually granted access to private interests to pursue a remedy, that would be different, but a

Industry committee  Right now the Telecommunications Act calls on the CRTC, under section 34, to find as a fact, on a case-by-case basis, that sufficient competition is present to justify the granting of forbearance to a incumbent provider. The telecom policy review admittedly says that section of

Industry committee  We endorsed most of the findings of the telecom policy review report. The ones we had problems with were around wholesale access, as Ted has raised. Thanks to the hearings of this committee in late 2006, the policy direction was amended to recognize that gap and deal with the iss

Industry committee  As I mentioned in response to Mr. McTeague's question, subsections 34(1) and 34(3) both call on the CRTC to find, as a fact, that there is competition present sufficient to protect the interest of users before granting an order of forbearance to an incumbent, a former monopoly pr

Industry committee  The policy direction has been issued. We think there were important amendments that the policy direction made as a result, in part, of the hearings in front of the committee. Once those amendments were made, we supported the policy direction and were quite comfortable with it bei

Industry committee  Yes, in its final form we support the policy direction.

Industry committee  I was here on Monday and I think, frankly, there was some confusion over when people were talking about the policy direction as opposed to when they were talking about the proposed order of forbearance. When I heard the questions of legality, I heard him speaking about the policy

Industry committee  No.

Industry committee  Well, my lawyers may feel that way too.

Industry committee  What we would really hope is that the test for forbearance, the framework--however it's amended--will provide certainty. Remember, in Manitoba we will be seeking forbearance in the city of Winnipeg, because that's where Shaw is present. Nationally we want to make sure that forb

Industry committee  Once the government acts, and of course, as a stakeholder--and as the largest competitor in the business market in Canada, we certainly are a stakeholder--we would have to review what our options would be in response to that order once it's issued in final form.

Industry committee  We don't maintain that the consequence would be us disappearing. In the latest CRTC telecom monitoring report, people talk about the accelerating pace of competition. The most recent telecom monitoring report shows that in the business market in Canada, competitor share of busine

Industry committee  The real difference is that the bureau is intended legislatively to govern markets that are already competitive. The CRTC is there to take a market that was a monopoly and transition it to competition. That implies a whole different view of things compared to when you're looking

Industry committee  It's a quasi-criminal process. As Ted says, as an applicant you don't have any control over the process. At least at the CRTC someone applies who's aggrieved and there's a process where you have some ability to influence the tribunal.