ARCHIVED - Telecom - Commission Letter - 8678-C12-11/01 - Avis public CRTC 2001-37intitulé Révision des prix plafonds et questions connexes (AP 2001-37) :organisation et déroulement de l'audience publique avec comparution

Letter

Ottawa, 7 September 2001

To: Distribution List - Interested Parties, Public Notice CRTC 2001-37

Re: Public Notice CRTC 2001-37 (PN 2001-37): Price Cap Review and Related Issues: Organization and Conduct of the Oral Public Hearing

The Commission is scheduled to hold an oral public hearing in connection with the above-noted proceeding commencing on Monday, October 1^st, 2001, at the Conference Centre, Phase IV, Outaouais Room, Place du Portage, 140 Promenade du Portage, Hull, Québec.

The purpose of this letter is to provide information to the parties on a variety of matters relating to the organization and conduct of the public hearing.

Sitting schedule

The Commission intends to begin the hearing at 9:00 a.m. on Monday, October 1^st, 2001, and to sit Mondays through Fridays during the course of the hearing, with a normal sitting day of 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The Commission will not sit on Monday, October 8^th, 2001 (Thanksgiving Day).

While the Commission does not anticipate that sittings will extend into the evening or on weekends, it may be necessary to revisit the schedule and sit longer hours on one or more days, or to sit one or more Saturdays, if it appears that the hearing is behind schedule. The Commission notes that it currently intends the hearing to conclude no later than Friday, October 12^th, 2001, but that, if necessary, the hearing could extend into the week of October 15^th, 2001.

The Commission notes that the first day of the hearing will be reserved for comments from the general public, with cross-examination commencing thereafter.

Ruling on confidentiality and deficiency claims

The Commission's procedures in this hearing provide for a round of requests for disclosure and for further responses regarding interveners' interrogatory responses filed on September 13^th, 2001. It is expected that a ruling on any such requests will be issued within the first few days of the oral hearing.

Order of witnesses to be presented

The following parties have advised the Commission of their intention to make one or more witnesses available for cross-examination. The Commission has determined that the parties should present their witnesses in the following order:

1. Aliant Telecom Inc., Bell Canada, MTS Communications Inc., Saskatchewan Telecommunications (The Companies)
2. Telus Communications Inc. (Telus)
3. Action Réseau Consommateur, the Consumers' Association of Canada, Fédération des Associations Coopératifs d'économie familiale and the National Anti-Poverty Organization ("ARC et al")
4. City of Calgary
5. Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakunak (MKO)
6. AT&T Canada Corp. Inc., AT&T Corp Services (AT&T Canada)
7. Call-Net Enterprises Inc. (Call-Net)
8. GT Group Telecom
9. Rogers Communications Inc. (RCI)

The Commission has been informed that certain witnesses are not available at all times. It will adjust the above schedule as necessary.

Order of cross-examination

Attachment 1 to this letter sets out the list of parties that have notified the Commission of their intention to cross-examine one or more witnesses. The Commission has decided that cross-examination of witnesses will proceed in the order set out in Attachment 1. Any party intending to conduct cross-examination who is not on this list is to notify the Commission of such intention no later than Thursday, September 20^th, 2001.

The Commission notes that, in the case of each witness, questioning by Commission counsel, if any, will follow cross-examination by the parties.

Final argument

The Commission does not intend to have oral final argument. Rather, parties are to file and serve their written argument in accordance with the procedures set out in PN 2001-37.

Opening statements and use of audio-visual presentations

The Commission will not permit oral opening statements by any party or their witnesses, whether at the commencement or during the course of the oral hearing, and will not permit the use by any party or their witnesses of any audio-visual presentation. However, parties may file written opening statements as an exhibit on the first morning of the hearing, serving a copy on all appearing parties at the hearing.

Responsibilities of the Parties

Parties are reminded that it is their responsibility to monitor the progress and content of the hearing in order, among other things, to ensure that they are aware of any documents that may have been filed in their absence, any changes to the order of presentation of witnesses or order of cross-examination, and any Commission rulings.

Similarly, parties should keep themselves informed of the progress of cross-examination, so that they will be ready with their own cross-examination at the appropriate time, and, in the case of parties that have filed evidence, so that their witnesses can be called to testify in accordance with the order established by the Commission. Parties should also be aware of the cross-examination that precedes their own, in order to eliminate duplication of matters dealt with by earlier parties.

During the hearing, parties must keep the Hearing Secretary informed on an on-going basis of their most recent estimates of the duration of their cross-examination of other parties' witnesses. This will assist the Commission and all parties in forecasting the scheduling of witnesses and cross-examination.

Record of appearance

In order to assist the Commission, parties are asked to submit to the Hearing Secretary a Record of Appearance on October 1^st, 2001. This will enable the Hearing Secretary to contact parties, if necessary, to obtain information or to inform them of matters relating to the hearing. Copies of the Record of Appearance may be obtained from the Hearing Secretary on the morning of October 2^nd, 2001.

Examination-in-chief

Parties are reminded that traditional examination-in-chief is not permitted at public hearings conducted by the Commission; rather, in accordance with section 21 of the CRTC Telecommunications Rules of Procedure, a party calling a witness should restrict its examination to the following:

1. whether the evidence was prepared by or under the supervision of the witness;
2. whether the evidence filed contains any errors or requires any routine updates; and
3. the qualifications of the witness.

The introduction of witnesses by parties should be brief, with little or no reading from witness' curricula vitae.

Witness' curricula vitae

Curricula vitae of witnesses to be presented by parties are to be filed with the Commission as exhibits and copied on all parties no later than September 20^th, 2001.

Procedure for introduction of exhibits

The Commission expects parties to introduce exhibits using the expedited procedure which was adopted in the proceeding leading to Review of Regulatory Framework, Telecom Decision CRTC 94-19, dated 16 September 1994. For convenience, this procedure is reproduced below:

Responses to Undertakings

1. Parties must provide copies of their Responses to Undertakings to both the Hearing Secretary and to other parties in advance of their being introduced as exhibits. Wherever possible, oral or written responses to undertakings should include a reference to the transcript page at which the undertaking was given, identifying both the witness giving the undertaking and the party to whom the undertaking was given.
2. Before circulating these documents, parties should confirm with the Hearing Secretary the number assigned to the most recent exhibit. Parties themselves should then number the Responses to Undertakings accordingly, prior to distribution.
3. The Hearing Secretary will then enter the Responses as exhibits at an appropriate time by briefly identifying the party in question and noting the exhibit numbers assigned to various Responses.

Documents other than Responses to Undertakings

1. Unless there is sufficient reason for not doing so, parties should provide the Hearing Secretary and the other parties with copies of the proposed exhibits in advance. To facilitate recognition of a particular document, parties should ensure that exhibits have titles.
2. During the cross-examination of a witness or panel of witnesses by a party, the Hearing Secretary will track the documents put to the witness or panel of witnesses, and will assign numbers accordingly. This will not be done orally.
3. Following a party's completion of the cross-examination of the witness(es), the Hearing Secretary will enter as exhibits the documents that were in fact put to the witness(es) by that party.

Copies of documents filed

All parties are reminded that, with respect to all documents filed at the public hearing, 20 copies must be provided to the Hearing Secretary for the Commission's use.

At the same time, a copy of all such documents must be served on all other parties present at the public hearing on the date the document is filed.

Pre-hearing briefing documents

The Commission intends to make available for inspection by all parties a pre-hearing briefing document prepared by Commission staff to aid Commissioners on various substantive matters likely to be addressed during the course of the oral phase of this proceeding. While this document does not represent an exhaustive discussion of the issues to be examined by the Commission, it does provide an indication of some of the matters arising from the record. The Commission will make copies of this document available in the Public Examination Room at the oral public hearing on the morning of October 2^nd, 2001 (as noted earlier, the 1^st day of the hearing will be reserved for comments from the general public, with cross-examination commencing thereafter).

Assistance to parties

In order to ensure that the public hearing may be conducted smoothly and efficiently, Commission counsel (Karen Moore and Natalie Turmel, Tel: (819) 953-0632, or (819) 994-7572) will be available, both prior to and during the hearing, to assist legal counsel or other representatives of the parties with regard to procedural matters and the practices and procedures of the Commission.

Sincerely,

Ursula Menke
Secretary General

Attachment

Attachment 1

ORDER OF CROSS-EXAMINATION OF WITNESSES

1. The Companies
2. Telus
3. ARC et al
4. BCOAPO et al
5. Consumers' Association of Canada - Alberta (CAC-Atla)
6. MKO
7. AT&T
8. Call-Net
9. GT Group Telecom
10. RCI