Industry committee  Yes, absolutely. The CRTC plays a crucial role, or it at least has the potential to play a crucial role in ironing out a lot of these types of problems that we're discussing here today. You could almost view it as sort of an inadvertent push to the CRTC. This conflict that comes out of this decision with respect to wireline rates and the preference that's being given to Videotron may sort of spur the CRTC to take a serious look at fixing this.

Industry committee  The answer to that is “yes”. While the minister can currently declare that Videotron must hold on to the spectrum for 10 years, if it comes into a position where it says, well, we've decided to exit the business, or our business model has not panned out as we had planned, then they'll be in exactly the position Shaw is in today.

Industry committee  My position is that the best way forward to promote competition is to block the merger and allow the companies to compete on a market basis.

Industry committee  I have never taken money from Bell or Telus. Like most people, I give them my money. I have already seen that document. I think they identified stakeholders they would seek to co-opt. I met with people from Telus on one occasion, an academic named John Gannon, to discuss a white paper it published about spectrum policy.

Industry committee  For years, in the yearly reports published by the Canadian Media Concentration Research Project, we've done an analysis of provincial markets for mobile wireless service. I'm chiefly responsible for that section. I definitely agree that Quebec in recent years, due to Videotron, has set an example of the type of competition that could emerge from the fourth carrier policy.

Industry committee  The fact that Videotron becomes reliant on Rogers for certain types of access puts Videotron in a difficult position. First of all, we don't know the exact facts of the nature of those access agreements. It's going to have to go to the CRTC to see just how preferential or discriminatory they are.

Industry committee  Thank you for inviting me to be here today. When last we spoke, the Rogers network had gone dark from coast to coast, disrupting the lives of families across the country and causing business to grind to a halt. The outage should have served as a wake-up call that bigger is not always better, especially when it comes to the essential services that we all rely on in our daily lives.

Industry committee  This might be among the stranger things you've heard today, but I'm a huge fan of the CRTC, actually, because I think it provides a venue for democratic participation, something that we all think is important. There have been improvements in the way it's been managed in recent years.

Industry committee  Yes, I largely share Dr. Winseck's views. My take on the situation is that on the basis of the arguments the Competition Bureau has made, to allow Quebecor to take over Freedom Mobile would be very risky. I think we need to be valuing the bird in the hand over the one that might appear in the bush, in this particular case.

Industry committee  The CRTC has forborne from a lot of their responsibilities. They have the legislative power to forebear from regulation when they find that markets are sufficiently competitive to protect the interests of users. What this has looked like in practice is that the CRTC has refrained from regulating on the assumption that things are going to work just fine based on the behaviour of market players.

Industry committee  Yes, absolutely. Dismissing competition is something that's implicated in this issue. I've heard many people say that if you have more competitors in the market, some of them are going to be relying on the big telecoms, and they would have gone down as well. We heard that some of the resellers or the wholesale-based providers who are on Rogers, their customers were all still out, and maybe people who live in rural areas—I'm one of them right now—wouldn't have a choice anyway, but that misses the issue that we've put a lot of eggs in one basket.

Industry committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair and members, for inviting me to appear today. I'm joining you from Treaty 3, the traditional land of the Anishinabe nation at the border of Manitoba and Ontario. I should note that I'm a director of the Internet Society, Canada Chapter as well as the Public Interest Advocacy Centre.