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Telecom - Staff Letter addressed to Distribution

Ottawa, 13 September 2023

Our reference: 1011-NOC2023-0056

VIA EMAIL

Distribution

Subject: Telecom Notice of Consultation CRTC 2023-56 – Request of the Commissioner of Competition for disclosure of additional information

By letter dated 28 July 2023, the Commissioner of Competition (the Commissioner) made a number of requests associated with the above-referenced proceeding. One request was for the disclosure of confidential responses to requests for information (RFIs) issued by Commission staff on 10 July 2023Footnote1, for which responses were not yet received and only due on 14 August 2023. The Commissioner subsequently sent a follow-up letter dated 1 September 2023, requesting disclosure of information that was designated confidential by certain parties in their responses to the RFI questions that the Commissioner identified in the 28 July letter.

In support of his disclosure request, the Commissioner referenced paragraph 39(4)(b) of the Telecommunications Act (the Act) and explained that the requested information was relevant to competition and would enhance his ability to conduct the analyses outlined in his 4 May 2023 letter.

Under paragraph 39(4)(b) of the Act, the Commission may exercise its discretion and require disclosure of confidential information to the Commissioner if, in its view, the information is relevant to competition issues being considered in the proceeding.

The information in the RFI responses pertains to the state of the Canadian retail Internet service marketplace and is expected to provide information regarding the state of competition. Commission staff is therefore of the view that the disclosure to the Commissioner of the requested information would be relevant to the competition issues being considered in this proceeding and could ultimately be of benefit in assisting the Commissioner in preparing his evidence for the remainder of the proceeding.

The Commissioner is restricted in the ways that he may use the confidential information disclosed under the Act and must also treat the disclosed information as confidential. The Competition Bureau is also a specialized agency without a financial stake in the outcome of the proceeding and with extensive experience in handling sensitive information.  Given this, Commission staff considers that there is little risk of potential harm in disclosing the information to the Commissioner.

In light of the above, Commission staff accepts the Commissioner’s request for disclosure as per paragraph 3 of his 1 September 2023 letter (for ease of reference, the list of parties and applicable questions is reproduced in Appendix 1 of this letter, Bell Canada (including Bell Aliant, Bell MTS, Distributel, and EBOX), Bragg Communications Inc., carrying on business as Eastlink, CIK Telecom, City Wide, Cogeco Communications Inc. (including Oxio), Frontier Networks,  Quebecor Media Inc., on behalf of Videotron Ltd. (including VMedia), Rogers Communications Canada Inc (including Shaw Cablesystems G.P.), Saskatchewan Telecommunications, TELUS Communications Inc. (including Altima and Start) and TekSavvy, are to disclose the information contained in their responses directly to the Commissioner by 19 September 2023.

Commission staff reminds parties that requests for disclosure of confidential information should be submitted only after the information is filed in confidence with the Commission.

Sincerely,

Original signed by

Philippe Kent
Director, Telecommunications Services Policy
Telecommunications

c. c. Marianne Blais, CRTC, marianne.blais@crtc.gc.ca
Peter Keriakos, CRTC, peter.keriakos@crtc.gc.ca
Greg Lang, CRTC, greg.lang@crtc.gc.ca
Adam Mills, CRTC, adam.mills@crtc.gc.ca
Chris Roy, CRTC, christopher.roy@crtc.gc.ca

Appendix 1. Disclosure of confidential responses

The following parties are required to file/disclose the confidential information submitted to the Commission in response to Commission’s staff letter “Telecom Notice of Consultation 2023-56 – Further Requests for Information” dated 10 July 2023:

Distribution List

Bell Canada, bell.regulatory@bell.ca;
Cogeco, telecom.regulatory@cogeco.com;
Eastlink, regulatory.matters@corp.eastlink.ca;
RCCI, regulatory@rci.rogers.com;
SaskTel, document.control@sasktel.com;
Shaw, Regulatory@sjrb.ca;
TCI, regulatory.affairs@telus.com;
Videotron, regaffairs@quebecor.com;
CNOC, regulatory@cnoc.ca;
Community Fibre, ben@communityfibre.ca;
Comwave, legal@comwave.net;
Public Interest Advocacy Centre, jlawford@piac.ca;
TekSavvy, regulatory@teksavvy.ca;
Vaxination Informatique, jfmezei@vaxination.ca;
John Roman, johnphiliproman@gmail.com;
WaveDirect Telecommunications Limited, joanne@wavedirect.org;
Vaxxine Computer Systems Inc., president@vaxxine.com;
Truespeed Internet Services Inc., adam@truespeed.ca;
SkyChoice Communications, serge@skychoice.ca;
Securenet, info@securenet.net;
Secure by Design, kirk@secure-by-design.com;
OpenMedia, erin@openmedia.org;
Netrevolution inc., drouleau@gtvr.com;
National Capital FreeNet, execdir@ncf.ca;
IGS Hawkesbury Inc., jbogue@hawkmail.ca;
First Mile Connectivity Consortium, info@firstmile.ca;
Devtel Communications Inc., devin@devtelcommunications.ca;
CPC, campbell@campbellpatterson.com;
Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project (CAMP), keldon@antimonopoly.ca;
Beanfield, todd@beanfield.com;
Marc Nanni, mn_crtc@proton.me;
Competition Bureau, Conor.Parson@cb-bc.gc.ca;
Competition Bureau, crtc2023-56@cb-bc.gc.ca;
Coextro, skhandor@coextro.com;
Carry Telecom, frankw@carrytel.ca;
Execulink, yasmin.charania@execulinktelecom.ca;
Frontier Networks, cgooey@frontiernetworks.ca;
Citywide, david@yourcitywide.com;
CIK Telecom, jordan.d@ciktel.com;
British Columbia Broadband Association (BCBA), regulatory@bcba.ca

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