|
|
|
Ottawa, 8 December 1994
|
|
Telecom Public Notice CRTC 94-57
|
|
PROPOSAL TO ENACT TELECOMMUNICATIONS FEES REGULATIONS
|
|
The Telecommunications Act (the Act), Chapter 38 of the Statutes of Canada 1993, came into force on 25 October 1993. Section 68 of the Act empowers the Commission, with the approval of the Treasury Board, to make regulations prescribing fees, and respecting their calculation and payment, for the purpose of recovering all or a portion of the costs that the Commission determines to be attributable to its responsibilities under the Act or any special Act. The Commission proposes to enact regulations pursuant to this section of the Act. A copy of the proposed regulations is appended to this Public Notice. The proposed regulations will replace the existing Telecommunications Fees Regulations, SOR/87-304, 29 May 1987.
|
|
The existing regulations provide for the calculation of telecommunications fees according to the costs of the Commission's telecommunications and supporting activities estimated in the Expenditure Plan published in The Estimates of the Government of Canada for the Commission's most recently completed fiscal year. By contrast, the proposed regulations contemplate calculation of the annual telecommunications fees based on estimated costs for the Commission's current fiscal year.
|
|
The proposed regulations will also provide that any supplementary expenditures (approved by the Treasury Board) after Main Estimates are tabled, will also be recovered. Under the current regulations, these additional costs could not be collected.
|
|
The new regulations will also permit the Commission to adjust the annual telecommunications fees that have been charged to all Canadian carriers subject to the regulations to the Commission's actual expenditures on telecommunications activities during the fiscal year. Any excess fees will be credited to the carriers, while shortfalls will be subject to an additional billing. The present regulations made no provision for such adjustments.
|
|
Other changes in the proposed regulations pertain to the use of terminology that is consistent with the Act and to the elimination of express reference to interest charges.
|
In proposing the new fees regulations, the Commission considers still valid the principles that underlie the existing regulations, expressed as follows in Regulations Respecting Telecommunications Fees, CRTC Telecom Public Notice 1987-30, 16 June 1987:
|
|
The Commission considers this [fee calculation] method to be fair, and to be relatively straightforward and inexpensive to apply. In this regard, the Commission notes that all services, including competitive services, contribute to regulatory activity and costs and it considers, therefore, that all services should contribute to the recovery of costs.
|
|
Accordingly, in the new regulations, the Commission proposes to continue the fee-calculation mechanism implemented in the existing regulations. Thus, the fees to be paid by a Canadian carrier will continue to be calculated as a pro rata share based on operating revenues earned by the carrier from the provision of both monopoly and competitive telecommunications services in the previous year. The regulations will continue to apply to all Canadian carriers for which tariffs are filed with the Commission. The regulations will not apply to any carriers that are not required to file tariffs or that the Commission has exempted from the application of the Act pursuant to section 9.
|
|
Consistent with the above, the Commission will expect all Canadian carriers that file tariffs to file their most recent annual financial statements with the Commission on or before 31 March of each year.
|
|
Interested parties wishing to comment on the proposed regulations must send their submissions to the Secretary General, CRTC, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0N2, by 15 February 1995. Any such submissions are to be actually received, not merely mailed, by that date.
|
|
Allan J. Darling
Secretary General
|
|
|