Telecom - Commission Letter addressed to the Distribution list
Ottawa, 28 July 2022
Our reference: 8000-C12-202203868
BY EMAIL
Distribution list
Subject: Rogers Canada-wide service outage of July 2022 – Response to PIAC’s request for disclosure procedure
On 12 July 2022, Commission staff sent a Request for Information (RFI) to Rogers Communications Canada Inc. (Rogers) in relation to the Canada-wide outage experienced by the company beginning on 8 July 2022.
On 22 July 2022, Rogers filed its responses to the RFI, including an abridged version for the public record.
On 25 July 2022, the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) requested clarification from the Commission as to whether the present set of RFIs and abridged response from Rogers is to be considered a proceeding, and whether PIAC and others may challenge Rogers’ assertions of confidentiality and, if so, what procedure should be undertaken to challenge those assertions.
As indicated in Commission staff’s initial 12 July letter, the Commission takes the matter of Rogers’ Canada-wide outage very seriously. While Rogers has provided an abridged version of its response for the public record, the Commission remains intent, in light of the public interest, on ensuring that Canadians have access to all the information they need to understand what happened and what is being done to mitigate such possibilities in the future. Commission staff is currently reviewing the RFI responses for completeness and for the adequacy of public disclosure of its contents. Commissions staff may ask for additional RFIs or require the disclosure of information designated as confidential if its disclosure is in the public interest, i.e., where the specific direct harm does not outweigh the public interest in disclosure.
In conjunction with this review by Commission staff, the abridged version of Roger’s response is available to the public. To clarify, while these RFIs are not associated with an open proceeding, they are related to a matter before the Commission, and therefore section 39(7) applies to disclosure requests in this case.
Accordingly, any interested person may, no later than Friday, 5 August 2022, request additional disclosure from Rogers of information it filed in confidence as part of its 22 July 2022 response to Commission staff’s RFI, serving a copy of the request on Rogers.
In requesting the additional disclosure, any person must provide reasons, as well as any supporting documents, why the disclosure would be in the public interest, including how the information is relevant to the Commission’s regulatory responsibilities.
Rogers will have until Friday, 12 August 2022, to respond to any such request for additional disclosure.
Subsequently, consistent with sections 38 and 39 of the Telecommunications Act and sections 30 and following of the CRTC Rules of Practice and Procedure, Commission staff will evaluate any request for additional disclosure and response from Rogers, and make an assessment as to whether additional disclosure is warranted.
Commission staff notes that in addressing any request for additional disclosure, Rogers should take into account whether any information that was confidential at the time of its original filing has since become public knowledge as the result of public statements by the company.
Commission staff notes that, on 8 July 2022, PIAC also filed a request that the Commission open an Inquiry under s. 48 of the Telecommunications Act in this matter. As indicated by the CRTC Chairperson in his remarks before the Standing Committee on Industry and Technology (INDU), the Commission is considering its next steps in its investigation of these matters, as well as outages of telecommunications networks generally, and the Canadian public will be kept informed of how it may contribute in any future proceedings related to these matters.
Sincerely,
Original signed by
Fiona Gilfillan
Executive Director, Telecommunications
c.c: Ted Woodhead, Rogers Communications Canada Inc., regulatory@rci.rogers.com
Jean-François Mezei, Vaxination Informatique, jfmezei@vaxination.ca
Lisa Anderson, Deaf Wireless Canada Consultative Committee, regulatory@deafwireless.ca
Geoff White, Competitive Network Operators of Canada, geoff.white@cnoc.ca
Kimberly Wood, Canada Deaf Grassroots Movement, canadadeafgrassrootsmovement@gmail.com
Elliott Richman, Myles Murphy, Donald Prong, Deaf and Hard of Hearing Coalition, daans1976@gmail.com, myles.murphy@nf.sympatico.ca, dprong@deafontario.ca
John Lawford, Public Interest Advocacy Centre, jlawford@piac.ca
Noah Moser, CRTC, noah.moser@crtc.gc.ca
Michel Murray, CRTC, michel.murray@crtc.gc.ca
- Date modified: