Consumer Groups Petition Cabinet to Reverse Payphone Price Hike

Ottawa – July 31, 2007 – The National Anti-Poverty Organization, Public Interest Advocacy Centre and Union des consommateurs jointly petitioned the federal cabinet yesterday to overturn the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission’s (CRTC) decision to double local payphone rates to 50 cents a call from 25 cents a call for Bell Aliant, Bell Canada, MTS Allstream and Sasktel.
The petition [pdf file: 0.29mb] calls for Cabinet to rescind the payphone rate hike and refer the matter back to the CRTC with directions. The petition requests that upon re-examination of payphone rates, the CRTC “consider the effect of pay telephone rate increases upon all pay telephone users and in particular, low-income Canadians.”
The petition cites a national survey of 1127 Canadians performed in July 2007 for PIAC, with a margin of error ±3.2%, 19 times our of 20, which shows that 75% of respondents agree “50 cents is too much for a local payphone call.”
The CRTC allowed the 100% price increase as part of a larger decision on local telephone rates in which the phone companies refused to reveal publicly the costs and revenues from their payphone services. “The CRTC seems to have focused completely on the phone companies view of payphones as just another market,” noted John Lawford, counsel for PIAC. “It’s not. Payphones are a lifeline for Canadians and especially low-income Canadians who don’t have a home phone. They are the least able to afford an increase and here the CRTC has let phone companies double their rates overnight. It was ill-considered and we are asking the government to step in and say that is unfair.”
The CRTC justified its decision to raise rates because of fear phone companies would remove “unprofitable” payphones. “The CRTC agrees with phone companies which consider it justified to ask for more money from poorer Canadians than anyone else to pay for payphones,” notes Charles Tanguay of Union des consommateurs, “but they did not even require the companies to maintain the payphones they do have in exchange.
The CRTC is effectively placing the entire cost of payphones – an important part of the entire telephone and a social service –upon the backs of payphone users alone, notes Michael Janigan, General Counsel for PIAC and counsel for NAPO. “As we note in the petition, payphones are part of the entire telephone network, so some support for their costs should come from general residential and business rates.”
The National Anti-Poverty Organization (NAPO), is a national non-profit, non-partisan organization that represents the interests of low-income people in Canada
PIAC is a non-profit organization that provides legal and research services on behalf of consumer interests, and, in particular, vulnerable consumer interests, concerning the provision of important public services.
Union des consommateurs is a non-profit organization. Its mission is to promote and defend consumer rights, with particular emphasis on the interests of low-income households.
For more information:
John Lawford
Counsel
Public Interest Advocacy Centre
ONE Nicholas Street, Suite 1204
Ottawa, Ontario
K1N 7B7
(613) 562-4002×25 (office)
(613) 447-8125 (mobile)
(613) 562-0007 (fax)
jlawford@piac.ca
Charles Tanguay
Dir.-adjoint – Responsable des communications
UNION DES CONSOMMATEURS
6226, rue Saint-Hubert
Montréal (Qué.)
H2S 2M2
Tél.: 514 521-6820 poste 257
Cel.: 514 743-0419
Télécopieur: 514 521-0736
Tanguay@consommateur.qc.ca
skype: chucktanguay
http://consommateur.qc.ca/union
If you would like to complain directly to the CRTC about this rate increase:
Send a letter to the Secretary General, CRTC, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0N2 or to the nearest CRTC office; or
Fax a letter to (819) 994-0218; or
Use the CRTC’s complaints and inquiries on-line form or
Call the CRTC’s toll free telephone number at 1-877-249-2782*.
*You may be asked to put your complaint in writing to ensure that the CRTC has all the information it needs to pursue your complaint.
A copy of the petition is online at:
 

thumb_pdfDownload File: piac_payphone_cabinet_petition.pdf [size: 0.29 mb]

A copy of the Report by Union des consommateurs: Payphone Use Among Low Income Canadians is here:
 

thumb_pdfPayphone Use Among Low Income Canadians
Download File: ucreportpayphfinal.pdf [size: 0.13 mb]

PIAC: Don’t hold your breath waiting for lower phone bills

For immediate release
Attention: News/Business Editors
PIAC: Don’t hold your breath waiting for lower phone bills
(PIAC 25/07)—OTTAWA—Today the CRTC followed Industry Minister Maxime Bernier’s orders by deregulating 14 out 88 exchanges local telephone exchanges in New Brunswick and 49 of 147 in Nova Scotia even though sufficient competition to protect consumers does not, in the Commission’s view, exist in these market.
Minister Bernier has promised that his action will lead to reduce telephone rates for consumers.
“It’s doubtful that there is enough competition to protect ordinary residential phone customers,” said Michael Janigan, Executive Director and General Counsel of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre in Ottawa. In fact, Bell Aliant has already started to raise prices on some bundles of services that include local phone service.
“While some high end users may get some discounts, don’t hold your breath waiting for your telephone bill to go down”, Janigan added. “The big telephone companies have always had the ability to lower their rates and never did so. Why should they do it now?”
PIAC participated in all CRTC and government processes associated with telephone deregulation on behalf of ordinary and vulnerable residential consumers.
 

Telecommunications: Consumers Need the Right Kind of Help

Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Telecommunications: Consumers Need the Right Kind of Help
OTTAWA –Canadian consumer groups today condemned a limited and hasty telecommunications industry ombudsman proposal and instead called on the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission’s (CRTC) to hold an open, public process towards creating an independent and effective telecommunications consumer protection agency.
The British Columbia Public Interest Advocacy Centre, Consumers Council of Canada, Option consommateurs, Public Interest Advocacy Centre and Union des consommateurs, called the industry’s Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS), announced yesterday by Bell Canada, Rogers, TELUS and several other telephone, wireless and Internet providers, inadequate to protect consumers in their disputes with these telecommunications giants. The limited powers and type of problems the telecommunications providers have seen fit to allow the CCTS to handle, as well as its clear lack of independence from industry severely limits the ability of such an organization to truly resolve consumer complaints in the effective and efficient manner which consumers deserve.
A recent Cabinet directive issued at the behest of the Minister of Industry, Maxime Bernier, requires the creation of an independent consumer agency, approved by the CRTC, as a counterbalance to the rapid deregulation of local telephone service and the existing deregulation of wireless and Internet services. The report of the Telecommunications Policy Review Panel (TPRP), supported by the Minister and Industry Canada, likewise recommended the creation of an independent and effective “Telecommunications Consumer Agency”. The CCTS created by industry players falls well short of providing the minimal consumer protection guarantees recommended by the TPRP, notably the power to adequately compensate consumers.
As the CRTC has already indicated its intention to hold a public proceeding to hear proposals for such an agency, the consumer groups above decry the haste with which the telecommunications providers have put in place a flawed organization which effectively serves only the interests of the industry. The consumer groups further denounce the strategy of the large telecommunications companies that, while appearing to respond to the government’s requirements for such an agency, uses the creation of the CCTS as a green light for deregulation of local telephone service while painting the CRTC and its public process into a corner. Contrary to the suggestion in the CCTS press release yesterday that consumer groups were consulted and content with the proposal, the consumer groups above clearly indicated their dissatisfaction with it and their intention to oppose the proposal, as such, before the CRTC.
As a result, the consumer groups call for the soonest possible public process to create a sanctioned telecommunications consumer protection agency and call upon the CRTC to delay the approval of local telephone service deregulation prior to the approval and implementation of such an independent and effective agency. The consumer groups recommend to consumers in the meantime to refer their complaints with telecommunications service providers to their provincial consumer protection ministries and agencies and to the CRTC.
– 30 –
For more information:
Me Marie-Eve Rancourt,
Analyste politique et réglementation en matière de télécommunications,
radiodiffusion et vie privée
UNION DES CONSOMMATEURS
6226, rue Saint-Hubert
Montréal (Qué.)
H2S 2M2
Tél. : 1(514) 521-6820, poste 211
Fax : 1(514) 521-0736
Courriel: rancourt@consommateur.qc.ca
Site web: http://www.consommateur.qc.ca/union
Patricia MacDonald
Staff Lawyer
BC Public Interest Advocacy Centre
#208-1090 W Pender St
Vancouver, BC V6E 2N7
Phone: (604) 687-3063
patmac@bcpiac.com
 

Do Not Call List Rules to Protect Consumers

Ottawa – Tuesday, July 3, 2007 – Canada’s national Do Not Call Registry inched closer to reality today as the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) announced the Do Not Call List ground rules.
Today’s CRTC decision was welcomed by consumer groups as it provides consumers with a reasonable outline of what to expect from Canada’s Do Not Call list and allows the search for the operator of the list to go ahead. The list operator will register names on the list and collect fees from the telemarketing industry to pay for it. Consumers will not be charged to place their names on the Do Not Call list.
John Lawford, Counsel with the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC), stated, “Consumers have been waiting for this list for too long already but these rules are a reasonable compromise between consumers’ right to be left alone and businesses’ desires to sell services over the telephone. Hopefully we can get a list operator and get this going.”
Lawford noted that when the list does come into effect, consumers will have to be on their toes. “You will have to re-register on the Do Not Call list every three years, which is a great inconvenience to consumers. And it will take a while for people to understand that the Do Not Call list will not stop charities from calling you nor companies with which you have done business in the last 18 months.” On the other hand, Lawford noted, the CRTC chose to tighten up the “existing business relationship” definition in this decision, limiting businesses relying on the exemption to their own customers only, not customers of any of their affiliates. “For example, if you are on the Do Not Call list” said Lawford, “the phone company can’t call you about satellite or Internet service if you aren’t already a customer of that service. Likewise, your bank can’t call you about insurance offered by their insurance company, just because you are a bank customer.”
Rules for enforcement, including a fining power of up to $15,000 per violation by a telemarketing company, should help to ensure the Do Not Call list is respected. “We are pleased that the Commission has decided retain this enforcement power itself and not delegate it to the list operator” said Lawford.
The CRTC’s decision also set final rules for all other aspects of how telemarketing, whether by phone or fax, such as permissible telemarketing hours. Finally, since this is a new system, said Lawford, a public awareness campaign is needed. “The CRTC’s requirement on the phone companies to explain the Do Not Call list and telemarketing rules to customers in the front of the white pages and on their websites is really key.”
PIAC is a non-profit organization that provides legal and research services on behalf of consumer interests, and, in particular, vulnerable consumer interests, concerning the provision of important public services.
For more information:
John Lawford
Counsel
Public Interest Advocacy Centre
ONE Nicholas Street, Suite 1204
Ottawa, Ontario
K1N 7B7
(613) 562-4002×25 (office)
(613) 447-8125 (mobile)
(613) 562-0007 (fax)