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Ethics Commissioner says CRTC head’s beers with Bell’s Bibic not a conflict of interest

Canada’s ethics watchdog said Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) chairperson Ian Scott didn’t breach the Conflict of Interest Act.

Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner (CIEC) Mario Dion released a report regarding meetings Scott held with telecom providers while those providers had files before the CRTC. This included the now-infamous (at least, in Canadian telecom spheres) 2019 pub meeting with BCE and Bell Canada president and CEO Mirko Bibic.

A week prior to the pub meeting, Bell filed an application with the CRTC to review a telecom order issued in August 2019. In May 2021, Scott was on the panel that issued a decision to change the 2019 order.

Although Scott’s meeting with Bibic calls for his removal as chairperson of the CRTC and accusations of bias, Dian wrote in the report that the relationship between Bibic and Scott was “exclusively professional.” However, Dion also notes that whether the meeting raises a “reasonable apprehension of bias” will be determined by the Federal Court of Appeal and is a separate case.

Canada’s Integrity Commissioner referred the issue to CIEC earlier this year.

Image credit: CRTC

Source: Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Via: The Globe and Mail

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TekSavvy’s new campaign reminds federal government of looming deadline to lower internet prices

TekSavvy is reminding Canadians the federal government has until May 27th to lower their internet bills.

The internet service provider’s (ISP) ‘Pay Less to Connect‘ campaign features a doomsday-like timer counting down the minutes the government has left to speak on its petition to overrule an “arbitrary rate decision” by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).

“The federal cabinet can lower your internet bills. They decide by May 27, 2022,” the campaign’s home page says in big, bold letters.

An image of Bell CEO Mirko Bibic and Chairman Ian Scott is featured underneath. The image was captured after the CRTC released a decision saying larger telecom companies had to lower the wholesale internet rates charged to smaller competitors. The two met in an Ottawa pub in December 2019, the week after Bell filed an appeal to undo the ruling. The CRTC ultimately reversed its decision in May 2021.

The image is featured on the campaign website. Image credit: TekSavvy/screenshot

The May 27th, 2022 deadline originated from a petition TekSavvy filed on May 28th, 2021, asking the government to overrule the CRTC’s reversal.

TekSavvy wants Scott fired, or at the very least, wants him to recuse himself from decisions involving wholesale and facilities-based competition because he has a “clear bias.” In its petition, TekSavvy references Scott’s speech at a Canadian Club Toronto event in May 2021, where Scott said he has “a personal preference or a stronger belief in reliance on facilities-based competition” than wholesale-based competition, linking it to personal experiences in the private sector.

Since the filing, TekSavvy has further revealed Scott met with representatives from telecom companies while a file on internet rates was open, including 11 with representatives from Bell, Rogers or Shaw. The now infamous 2019 meeting Scott had with Bibic is also included.

Scott defended his actions several times. His most recent comes from comments he made at the International Institute of Communications annual conference this week.

“It’s unfortunate that so much is attached to the title of the chair — I don’t make decisions for the Commission,” Scott said about the meeting. He noted 80 people advise on telecom-related issues. “The focus is a bit misplaced.”

The ISP also wants the government to reinstate the CRTC’s 2019 Rates Order and ask the Competition Commissioner to address “anti-competitive activity,” TekSavvy says leading telecom companies in Canada displayed.

Image credit: TekSavvy

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CRTC chair says focus on meeting will Bell executive ‘misplaced’

Ian Scott said the attention his 2019 meeting with Bell executive Mirko Bibic recieved is “misplaced.”

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications (CRTC) chair made the comments as part of a keynote interview with National Post reporter Anja Karadeglija at the International Institute of Communications annual conference.

“It’s unfortunate that so much is attached to the title of the chair — I don’t make decisions for the Commission,” Cartt.ca quoted Scott as saying.

He said roughly 80 people advise on situations relating to telecommunications, “so the focus is a bit misplaced.”

The 2019 meeting took place after the CRTC announced internet rates were too high and telecom companies had to lower them. The CRTC reversed the decision on May 27th, 2021, after the leading telecom companies filed appeals.

Scott chalked the change up to a mistake. “Now, why did we reverse course? To put it simply, we got the initial decision wrong,” Scott told the parliamentary committee of industry and technology in February. “We couldn’t move ahead with rates that we knew were erroneous.”

The Ethics Commissioner will investigate several allegations internet service provider TekSavvy filed, including meeting with litigants from Bell, Rogers, and Shaw with a file on wholesale internet rates was open. The infamous meeting with Bibic is also included.

Source: Cartt.ca