Ellen C. Desmond, Commissioner, Atlantic Region and Nunavut
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC)
Check against delivery
Good morning and thank you so much to Sheri [Somerville, CEO, CCSA] and the CCSA members for inviting me to speak today.
I would like to begin by acknowledging we are gathered on the unceded, traditional territory of the Mi'kmaw people. I thank them and pay respect to their Elders.
The last time I spoke to this group was three years ago, in St. John's, in Newfoundland, and I'm happy to be here today. Many things have changed at the CRTC since 2023, as much in the broadcasting sector as in the telecommunications sector, and I'm happy to be speaking of our work this morning.
I also want to acknowledge my colleagues that are in the room: Commissioner Paquette (Quebec), and CRTC staff members.
First, let me take a few minutes to recognize the work CCSA members do each and every day. A few weeks ago, Sheri and I met for a brief discussion. I wanted to understand with more depth the organization and some of the challenges its members are facing.
During our meeting, Sheri was passionate about the work being done by CCSA members. She spoke about the essential services that are provided to some 500,000 Canadians across this country, from Stephenville, Newfoundland to Inuvik, Northwest Territories to Prince Rupert, BC.
These services underpin our communities. As you know, communications systems are increasingly a vital part of our daily lives, whether we are receiving alerts over television and radio, working and doing business via the Internet, or simply texting our family and friends.
Your businesses providing these links are based in those very same communities you serve. Customers know that when they call with an issue, it will get resolved quickly, perhaps by someone they see at the grocery store or the hockey rink on the weekends. That familiarity, that personal level of service, is what makes you unique.
As I was preparing for this presentation, I visited the CCSA website to get a better understanding of its members. In recent weeks, a telecommunications service provider from Ontario was in the spotlight. This provider has been serving its community in Ontario for 115 years, long before we had Internet or cellphones. And on its website, it states:
Our employees come from the area…we enjoy our work most because we're helping our neighbours and families directly. We are available where you are… We believe in community support and are active in lending a hand, giving back and doing our small part - simply because it feels right. The way it did for the local farmers who started it all.
CCSA members like this one are doing critical and important work - contributing at a grassroots level to many communities across our country.
During our meeting, Sheri also shared some of the challenges that the membership faces, including:
- ever-changing technology, and keeping pace with it, in an effort to offer competitive services; and
- the ever-growing importance of data and analytics and managing this data while running a business.
These are real challenges.
I can assure you that my fellow Commissioners and I are working every day to understand these challenges, and are focused on what matters to Canadians and the health of the industries that serve them. We know our decisions impact both consumers and the companies that provide content and services.
So today I want to share with you some of our recent work, including on some of the issues Sheri discussed, Canada's competitive framework, a consumer-related decision we made just last week, reducing process and administration, and more.
Fostering competitive telecommunications markets
I will start by talking about competition.
I know from conversations I have had with some of you that competition for customers - both getting new ones and keeping your current ones - is a challenge you face every day. And it is no longer competition with one another or with Canada's large, incumbent providers that you only have to worry about. Low-earth orbit satellite companies are offering competitive plans to customers, and this will likely impact the way business has historically been done.
With our recent decisions, the CRTC has sought to balance competitive intensity - ensuring that Canadians benefit from vigorous and diverse competitive options - with the need for ongoing network investment. The CRTC has taken a major step forward to improve competition in Canada's Internet access market by giving competitors a more workable way to sell Internet services using the fibre-to-the-home networks of large telephone companies nationwide. This access encourages Internet competition and empowers Canadians with more robust choices for Internet service.
To date, preliminary data is showing that numerous providers are using this wholesale service. This is encouraging. Yet, admittedly, our job is not done; these are early days in this new framework and as the market evolves, we need to be continually monitoring and be ready to amend and adjust when necessary.
Getting this framework right matters for every household and every business that depends on affordable, reliable, and high-speed connectivity.
Situated in your communities as you are gives you an edge in this new era of competition. You are uniquely positioned to know what customers need and to offer those tailored services. You can be nimble and pivot when required. You have the tools and the depth of experience with your customers to succeed.
Improving information available to consumers
Knowing your customers and serving them well can be a critical advantage that sets you apart in our new, more competitive landscape.
Not to mention that ensuring customers are served well by their service providers is behind recent changes to the Telecommunications Act, which required the CRTC to put new consumer protections in place.
The CRTC is strengthening these protections to ensure Canadians are fully benefitting from more choice and greater affordability. Recently, we removed extra fees on Internet and cellphone plans, improved the information Canadians receive about expiring contracts and discounts, and made it easier for people to switch to better offers.
And just last week, we took further action. We put in place rules to ensure that Canadians have clear and consistent information when shopping for Internet plans. The measures will standardize the information made available to consumers by large, incumbent providers, making it easier to compare plans, choose the one that best meets their needs, and avoid surprises on their bills.
While smaller providers are exempt from the new requirements, I would encourage you to review your marketing materials to ensure that the information about your speed and prices is set out clearly.
Leveraging data
Knowing what your customers want, and how the market is changing, is a key part of any business. And data analytics can be a key resource in understanding how the market and consumer preferences are changing.
Using data allows you to improve your customer experience and your marketing strategies, while minimizing risks. With analytics, you can accelerate growth and identify new product and service opportunities.
To help get you started, I would like to point you to some of our resources at the CRTC. Every year we publish a Canadian Telecommunications Market Report which helps us communicate how the markets we regulate are serving Canadians. The report includes insights on the industry as a whole, but also on customers' perspectives and needs, from their perception on plan affordability to how easy it is to change service plans, and so much more.
This information is easily accessible and can be used to improve your own businesses, attract customers, and remain competitive.
Investing in networks
Remaining competitive often also means investing in new types of technology and expanding the areas you serve. These outlays can be costly for any business - and we know the impact can be tremendous on smaller, community-based businesses.
Fortunately, the CRTC administers a fund which helps service providers expand telecommunications services in our rural, remote and Indigenous communities. The Fund is part of a whole-of-government effort to address the gap in connectivity. It targets traditionally underserved areas to help ensure that all Canadians can access high-speed Internet and cellphone services that meet or exceed the 50/10 megabits per second (Mbps) universal service objective. To date, the CRTC has provided over $780 million in funding to help serve 318 communities and over 50,000 households.
Our fourth call for funding applications for the Broadband Fund is open until October 15.
If there are some of you who have been planning to expand your footprint and bring better, faster, and more reliable service to customers, I encourage you to explore applying for funding through the Broadband Fund. We have excellent staff who are willing to help you navigate the process.
The CRTC also has a booth at this conference, and if you have any questions about the Broadband Fund or the application process, I encourage you to drop by.
Reducing regulatory burden and improving the CRTC
I want to turn now to the efforts made at the CRTC to be more efficient, timely and to reduce the regulatory burden for companies.
We have been working to find ways to streamline processes and improve transparency and accessibility. This impacts all of the work we are doing, but I will share a couple of examples.
On the broadcasting side, historically radio broadcasters had to renew their licences every seven years, which often required significant time and resources. The CRTC has moved to a new process where, in most instances, the licences will be open-ended, significantly cutting down on the required paperwork. While conditions of service and compliance requirements remain in place, the administrative burden of renewing licences has been greatly reduced.
For providers, we have eliminated some forms and reporting requirements, such as the semi-annual reports that were required regarding digital nuisance and scam calls.
And we are currently in the process of looking at and consolidating our four consumer protection codes into a single, simple code, to the benefit of both consumers and the industry. This is a significant undertaking that will eliminate duplicative rules, create greater consistency for service providers, and resolve consumer complaints faster.
All these efforts, and many more, are set out in our Red Tape Reduction Progress Report, which is available on our website. We are planning to publish an update this fall.
We will continue this work so that we can ensure we are creating a transparent and streamlined regulatory environment.
Our job is to make our regulations and forms efficient and reflective of today's reality, providing you with the time to focus on customers in a competitive environment.
Participate in CRTC processes
When we make decisions at the CRTC, like the one made last week, we do so only after we build a robust public record.
So let me take this moment to note that we also want you, as industry players, to participate in CRTC processes and have a positive impact on the work we are doing. We rely on industry members like yourselves, stakeholders, interest groups, the public, and others to ensure our decisions take into account all perspectives. It is how we align the needs of Canadians with the legislative objectives for the sectors we oversee.
The CCSA has been an active participant in some of our proceedings and we are grateful for this. These interventions help the Commission to critically consider how our decisions may impact the CCSA's members.
