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Broadcasting and Telecom - Secretary General Letter addressed to the Distribution List

Ottawa, 5 November 2024

Reference: CR 1014

BY E-MAIL

Distribution List

Subject: Reminder to Service Providers to make customers aware of the CCTS

Good afternoon,

The purpose of this letter is to remind service providers of their obligations to inform their customers of the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services (CCTS).Footnote1

As you know, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has created the Consumer Protection Codes (the Codes)Footnote2 to help guide the relationship between customers and their service providers. 

The CCTS plays a key role in implementing the CodesFootnote3 and uses them to help resolve customer complaints. The Codes include the obligation that service providers inform their customers about the CCTS during the complaints process. Service providers are also subject to additional obligations to raise customer awareness through the participation agreement with the CCTS.

The CRTC is committed to supporting and protecting consumers. As part of this work, the CRTC commissioned public opinion research to better understand consumer awareness and satisfaction with the CCTS. It found that only 2% of respondents who had an unresolved complaint were made aware of the CCTS by their service provider.Footnote4 This finding is supported by consumer feedback data in the CCTS’s annual reports from 2015 to 2023, which shows that only 8% to 13% of customers who contacted the CCTS about an unresolved issue learned about it from their service provider. 

In the CRTC’s view, these results show that Canadians are not being made aware of the CCTS effectively. To help ensure the CRTC has a complete understanding of why customers are not being informed of the CCTS, it is requiring the service providers on this distribution list to file responses to the following questions:

  1. Explain how you monitor your customer service representatives' compliance with the requirement to inform customers about the CCTS.
  2. Provide the scripts and training materials for customer service representatives related to the complaint escalation process and informing customers about the CCTS.
  3. For complaints referred to the CCTS, on average, how many days did it take to have the complaint referred to the CCTS from the initial receipt of the complaint? Of those that took longer than the average, how much longer did they take on average?

Responses to the questions are to be filed with the CRTC by 6 December 2024. All responses are to be received by that date.

The responses must address the practices of each respondent as a telecommunications service provider (TSP) and/or a broadcasting distribution undertaking (BDU), as well as the practices of any brands and subsidiaries.

As set out in Broadcasting and Telecom Information Bulletin 2010-961, Procedures for filing confidential information and requesting its disclosure in Commission proceedings, service providers may designate certain information as confidential. Service providers must provide an abridged version of the document involved, accompanied by a detailed rationale to explain why the disclosure of the information is not in the public interest. All submissions are to be made in accordance with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission Rules of Practice and Procedure, SOR/2010-277.

The CRTC will consider this information, as well as the information filed by service providers through annual compliance reporting, to determine whether further regulatory action is necessary.

If you have any questions, contact Patrick Arseneau, Senior Analyst, Social and Consumer Policy, at 819-994-7993 or patrick.arseneau@crtc.gc.ca.

Sincerely,

Marc Morin
Secretary General

c.c.: Scott Hutton, Vice President, CRTC, scott.hutton@crtc.gc.ca
Nanao Kachi, Director, CRTC, nanao.kachi@crtc.gc.ca
Michael Ostroff, Legal Counsel, CRTC, michael.ostroff@crtc.gc.ca
Patrick Arseneau, Senior Analyst, CRTC, Patrick.arseneau@crtc.gc.ca

Attachment (1) Distribution list

Distribution List

Bell Canada, bell.regulatory@bell.ca 
Cogeco Communications Inc. telecom.regulatory@cogeco.com
Bragg Communications Inc., carrying on business as Eastlink, Regulatory.Matters@corp.eastlink.ca
Quebecor Media Inc., regaffairs@quebecor.com  
Rogers Communications Canada Inc., rwi_gr@rci.rogers.com
Saskatchewan Telecommunications, document.control@sasktel.com
TELUS Communications Inc., regulatory.affairs@telus.com
Xplornet Communications Inc., Xplornet.Legal@corp.xplornet.com 
Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services, howard.maker@ccts-cprst.ca

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