ARCHIVED - Telecom Commission Letter addressed to Stephen Schmidt (TELUS Communications Company)

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Ottawa, 28 November 2014

File No. 8678-T66-201406075

Mr. Stephen Schmidt
Vice-President – Telecom Policy & Chief Regulatory Legal Counsel
Telecom Policy & Regulatory Affairs
TELUS Communications Company
215 Slater Street, 8th Floor
Ottawa, Ontario, K1P 0A6

By email: regulatory.affairs@telus.com

Re: Part 1 Application - Deferral Account Proposal to Improve the Accessibility of Telecommunications Services for Persons with Disabilities

Dear Mr. Schmidt:

I am writing with regard to the TELUS Communications Company (TCC) deferral account application filed with the Commission on 30 June 2014. The purpose of this letter is to respond to TCC’s proposal for a meeting with Commission staff and to clarify the status of the current application.

In a letter dated 29 October 2014, TCC provided responses to Commission staff’s requests for information dated 15 October 2014 and suggested that a direct meeting between TCC and Commission staff might be beneficial. Commission staff is satisfied with its understanding of the record, and considers that any additional clarification of TCC’s application can be accomplished through interrogatories.

Regarding the status of the current application, Commission staff notes the following:

Given these series of events and the content of the correspondence, Commission staff is concerned that TCC has not submitted a proposal that fully utilizes the entire balance of funds remaining in its deferral account, particularly given that TCC has indicated that it has already consulted with organizations representing Canadians with disabilities. Commission staff’s concern is further validated by the Commission’s expectation that deferral account funds earmarked for accessibility initiatives were to be fully utilized by the end of 2011.

Additionally, Commission staff notes that the Commission’s latest determination regarding deferral account funds, the Bell Deferral Account Decision, provides clear guidance with respect to the types of initiatives that the Commission has recently found to be acceptable and has approved.

Therefore, the current process will be reinitiated with the objective of creating a public record upon which the Commission can make determinations that will promote the accessibility of telecommunications services in Canada.  Those determinations may include direction to TCC with respect to the allocation of any remaining funds.

Commission staff will issue a letter shortly in response to the request of the CNIB to include an interrogatory process and to set out the new procedural deadlines for TCC’s’ current application.

Should you have any questions regarding this letter, please contact Marie-Claire Bouthillier at 819-997-4692 or marie-claire.bouthillier@crtc.gc.ca .

Yours sincerely,

ORIGINAL SIGNED BY /

Nanao Kachi
Director, Social & Consumer Policy
Consumer Affairs and Strategic Policy
Nanao.Kachi@crtc.gc.ca

cc. mary-louise.hayward@crtc.gc.ca; Marie-Claire.Bouthillier@crtc.gc.ca;        kay.saicheua@crtc.gc.ca

Distribution List:

Eric Edora Eric.Edora@TELUS.com; Canadian Association of the Deaf jroots@cad.ca; Ontario College of Art and Design, Treviranus, jtreviranus@faculty.ocad.ca;  ARCH archlib@lao.on.capetricoi@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; diane.bergeron@cnib.ca; Marc.Workman@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; jeff.in.kanata@gmail.com; Clayton Zekelman, clayton@MNSi.Net; Beverley Milligan, Media Access Canada, bmilligan@mediac.ca; Confédération des organismes de personnes handicapées du Québec, direction@cophan.org; lisandkellett@gmail.com

Footnote 1

Use of deferral account funds to improve access to telecommunications services for persons with disabilities and to expand broadband services to rural and remote communities, Telecom Decision CRTC 2008-1, 17 January 2008.

Return to footnote 1 referrer

Footnote 2

Bell Canada and Bell Mobility Inc. – Further proposals for the use of deferral account funds to improve access to telecommunications services for persons with disabilities, Telecom Decision CRTC 2014-527, 8 October 2014.

Return to footnote 2 referrer

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