ARCHIVED - Letter
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Mr. Bill Abbott
Senior Counsel & Bell Privacy Ombudsman
Bell Canada
Floor 19
160 Elgin Street
Ottawa, Ontario K2P 2C4
By email: bell.regulatory@bell.ca
Re: Bell Canada’s Part 1 Application to Improve the Accessibility of Mobile Telecommunications at Bell Canada (Mobility Accessibility Initiative) – Request for extension for filing updated economic information
Dear Mr. Abbott:
We are writing in response to your letter dated 24 February 2014 that requested a 4-week extension (24 March 2014) for filing with the Commission the updated economic information for the Mobility Accessibility Initiative requested by staff in a letter dated 17 February 2014.
Your letter states that this extension is required in order to provide an accurate reflection of current costs for Mobility Accessibility Initiative, given the passage of time since Bell Canada first filed this application, the diversity of activities within this initiative, and the need to address any surplus or shortfall in funds. The letter also indicates that a surplus of funds for this initiative is feasible and, if so, Bell Canada plans to allocate these funds to existing Mobile Accessibility activities. However if this is not possible, in order to mitigate further delay in the delivery of accessibility benefits, Bell Canada requests the Commission to consider the Mobile Accessibility Initiative as it stands and to consider proposals for use of surplus funds in a follow-up proceeding.
Commission staff considers Bell Canada’s request for extension to be reasonable given the importance of fulsome accounting and allocation of deferral funds for accessibility initiatives. Thus staff grants Bell Canada’s request above to extend the filing date to 24 March 2014 for this information. Commission staff also encourages Bell Canada to make best efforts to file any follow-up application for surplus funds at the same time to enable these funds, whose origins go back to the mid-2000s, to deliver as soon as possible improvements in accessibility of telecommunications services for persons with disabilities.
Yours sincerely,
ORIGINAL SIGNED BY /
Nanao Kachi
Director, Social and Consumer Policy
cc: mary-louise.hayward@crtc.gc.ca
Distribution List:
Canadian Association of the Deaf jroots@cad.ca; Ontario College of Art and Design, Treviranus, jtreviranus@faculty.ocad.ca; ARCH archlib@lao.on.ca; petricoi@lao.on.ca; Council of Canadians with Disabilities, laurie@ccdonline.ca; Council of Canadians with Disabilities, ccd@ccdonline.ca; Independent Living Canada, nationaldirector@ilc-vac.ca; Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB), Christine.robbins@cnib.ca; Canadian Council of the Blind, mpotvin@ccbnational.net; Ottawa Deaf Centre, newfiedjh@yahoo.com; Ontario Association of the Deaf, dean@deafontario.ca; The Canadian Hearing Society, ckenopic@chs.ca; Canadian Association for Community Living, mbach@cacl.ca; Centre québécois de la déficience auditive, cqda@videotron.ca; Public Interest Law Centre, mybow@legalaid.mb.ca; Disability and Information Technologies (Dis-IT), ine@ccdonline.ca; d_stienstra@umanitoba.ca; Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians/L'Alliance pour l'égalité des aveugles canadiens, mworkman@blindcanadians.ca; Farah.mughal@rci.rogers.com; Neil Squire Society, garyb@neilsquire.ca; Chris Stark, stark.chris@rogers.com; cstark@samobile.net; jeff.in.kanata@gmail.com; Clayton Zekelman, clayton@MNSi.Net; Ms. Denise Sayer, denise.sayer@paliareroland.com; Mr. David Lepofsky dlepofsky@sympatico.ca; Beverley Milligan, Media Access Canada, bmilligan@mediac.ca; Confédération des organismes de personnes handicapées du Québec, direction@cophan.org; Diane Bergeron diane.bergeron@cnib.ca
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