Vicky Eatrides, Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC)
Rachelle Frenette, General Counsel and Executive Director, Legal Services (CRTC)
Check against delivery
Introduction
Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you, Matt, for the warm welcome.
Before we begin, I would like to acknowledge that we are gathered on the traditional unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg people. Let us take a moment to thank the Anishinaabeg people and to pay respect to their Elders.
Thank you for inviting us to speak with you today. It is great to be here and to see a number of familiar faces in the room. And a warm hello to everyone joining us online.
On behalf of the CRTC, I want to thank CIPPIC for your ongoing work to engage students and the academic community in meaningful conversations about Canadian telecommunications policy. By leading various advocacy and research-driven initiatives, CIPPIC continues to make a vital contribution to shaping a more equitable, transparent, and accountable digital landscape.
And your work is more important than ever.
Telecommunications shape how we live -- how we learn, how we work, how we access healthcare, and how we stay close to loved ones. That is why listening to Canadians grounds telecommunications policy in the lived realities of communities across the country.
When I think about our role in telecommunications policy, I am reminded of something the Canadian business leader Bonnie Brooks once said: "we build the riverbanks and let the water flow freely." I think that this is a fitting metaphor for the work of many regulators.
At the CRTC, we are building riverbanks in the form of regulatory frameworks that support a healthy and competitive telecommunications industry. And our frameworks are not just built to hold the current -- they are meant to guide it.
We know that effective regulatory policy starts with a clear sense of purpose. So that is where we will start today: our mandate and our place within the broader framework of telecommunications policy.
Then, let us talk about the CRTC's ongoing efforts to help connect all Canadians to high-quality Internet and cellphone services.
And finally, we will delve into the CRTC's work on affordability, investment, and consumer protections.
CRTC mandate
So let us begin with a quick overview of the CRTC and our mandate, and then briefly touch on the landscape of telecommunications regulation beyond the CRTC.
Starting with the CRTC.
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission Act establishes the CRTC as a commission consisting of members appointed by the Governor in Council.
There are currently nine members -- a Chairperson, a Vice-Chairperson for Telecommunications, a Vice-Chairperson for Broadcasting, and six regional Commissioners who are located across the country.
Commissioners have a team of expert staff supporting them -- many of whom have spent their entire careers studying and analyzing the telecommunications and broadcasting industries in both the public and private sectors.
We have colleagues with consumer, social policy, legal, and other diverse expertise, who help Commissioners make informed decisions that benefit Canadians.
Now let us turn to our mandate. As you may know, the CRTC is an independent quasi-judicial tribunal that regulates the Canadian communications sector in the public interest. We hold public consultations on telecommunications and broadcasting matters and make decisions based on the record.
This means taking into account a number of different -- and often competing -- interests as the Commission makes its decisions. These decisions create regulatory frameworks that guide how telecommunications service providers interact with Canadians and with each other.
The CRTC regulates the telecommunications industry through the Telecommunications Act. Our decisions are guided by the nine telecommunications policy objectives outlined in the Act. These objectives, established by Parliament, range from foundational goals -- such as ensuring reliable, affordable, and high-quality telecommunications services -- to more targeted aims, like promoting telecommunications research and development in Canada.
In the broader landscape, telecommunications regulation in Canada is a shared responsibility. In addition to the CRTC, the Minister of Industry holds key regulatory responsibilities under both the Telecommunications Act and the Radiocommunication Act.
Most notably, the Minister oversees the management of Canada's wireless spectrum, which is essential for delivering cellphone services and over-the-air broadcasting.
I mentioned the policy objectives in the Act earlier. These can be supplemented by Government policy directions to the CRTC. Together, the legislation and policy directions serve as guiding principles the CRTC must take into account when making its decisions.
The current policy direction was issued in 2023. It contains a number of key themes that drive the CRTC's policy work, such as using regulation to promote competition, affordability, consumer interests, and innovation. Other parts of the policy direction guide the CRTC on how it should do that work, like asking us to ensure that any measures we impose are efficient and proportionate to their purpose.
Our frameworks are informed by the broader landscape of telecommunications regulation -- by Parliament through the objectives in the Act, by the government through the policy direction, and, importantly, by the evidentiary records we build during our public consultations.
We value diverse perspectives because each voice contributes to the record and directly influences the decisions the Commission makes. That is why organizations like CIPPIC are essential -- you help ensure that the interests of Canadians are heard and reflected in our policies.
I think that is a good segue to the CRTC's regulatory work.
Connecting Canadians
Let us start with the CRTC's ongoing efforts to connect Canadians to high-quality Internet and cellphone services.
Most of us here today have had access to high-speed Internet and the latest cellphone technology for many years. We have come a long way, but there is still more work to do to make Internet access available to everyone across Canada.
Our latest public information shows that about 750,000 Canadian households still lack access to unlimited Internet plans at speeds of at least 50 megabits per second download and 10 megabits per second upload. While the number of households that lack access continues to drop, we know that rural, remote, and Indigenous communities are disproportionately affected.
An Internet user in the North told the Competition Bureau during their market study on broadband that this "results in feelings of isolation and as though we aren't a part of Canada."
This is a powerful reminder of the impact a lack of connectivity can have, including on our sense of belonging.
Let me share another example.
We know that there are communities in Canada that do not have a high school, and where local education can end at grade 9 or 10. This was the case for Angelina in the Northwest Territories, whose story was reported in the media. Angelina had to move 200 kilometres to Yellowknife to attend in-person high school classes. Most of us cannot imagine having had to leave our families and friends at age 15 to go to school.
So, what does this have to do with connectivity?
Well, for students like Angelina who do not have a local school, online schooling can be an alternative. But online schooling is only an option for students who have access to high-quality Internet.
In 2019, the CRTC launched its Broadband Fund as part of a government-wide effort to help connect rural, remote, and Indigenous communities across Canada.
To date, the CRTC has allocated over $750 million to projects that provide Internet or cellphone services to nearly 50,000 homes in more than 290 communities. The Broadband Fund has also helped improve cellphone service on more than 630 km of major road and build over 5,500 km of fibre across the country.
Affordability and investment
While ensuring that Canadians are connected is an important part of the CRTC's role, we also work to keep Internet and cellphone services affordable and to preserve incentives for providers to invest in reliable, high-quality networks.
Our Vice-Chair of Telecommunications, Adam Scott, recently described this work as the "Goldilocks problem" in telecommunications policy: if prices are too high, affordability suffers; if prices are too low, investment is discouraged, risking lower service quality and reduced connectivity.
Solving this issue starts with listening.
We have heard firsthand the struggles Canadians face affording their telecommunications services. During our public hearing on high-speed Internet, we learned about an individual named Sandy who lived in British Columbia and whose relatives spent more on telecommunications than on food. And similarly, we heard about Brigitte in Ontario, for whom the Internet was a vital lifeline. It was so essential that she had to cut back on other things to afford it.
These stories show that making sure Canadians have affordable telecommunications is as important as making sure they are connected through programs like the CRTC's Broadband Fund.
While Statistics Canada data shows that Internet and cellphone prices are trending down, our latest public opinion research shows that people feel these services have become less affordable over the past year.
On the other side of the "Goldilocks problem," we know that building networks is expensive and that fair returns take time. We also know that in remote areas, connecting a single home can cost telecommunications companies several thousands of dollars.
So how are we tackling the "Goldilocks problem"?
We are taking action to encourage competition, while maintaining incentives for companies to invest.
Let us start with cellphone services.
The CRTC's rules let smaller regional cellphone providers offer service across Canada by using the networks of larger companies. These rules are helping to provide Canadians with more options than we had before. They are also helping to increase competition between small and large companies, leading to more affordable services.
Smaller providers are able to reach new areas they could not serve before. But to make sure they keep investing in their own networks, access to the networks of larger companies is only temporary -- they must finish building their own infrastructure by 2030.
We are also taking action to improve competition for Internet services. Over the past few years, Canadians have had fewer options when it comes to choosing an Internet provider. That is why, last August, the CRTC began allowing companies to offer Internet plans using the fibre networks of Canada's largest telephone companies in areas where those companies do not have their own networks.
We also put measures in place to make sure companies keep investing in high-quality networks. That includes setting fair rates so large companies are paid for the cost of building fibre networks, limiting where they can use the new rules so that they keep building their own networks, and delaying competitive access to brand-new fibre until 2029.
Now that these frameworks are in place, our next steps are to keep a close eye on how they are working and to make changes if needed.
Consumer protections
That brings us to the last policy area we will cover today -- consumer protections.
We have heard stories of Canadians facing unexpected increases in their monthly bills. We have also heard of Canadians who want to take advantage of a better deal in the market only to be faced with high fees for cancelling their existing service. And we know that Canadians need simple and convenient self-service mechanisms to modify, right-size, or cancel their plans.
As part of our mandate to protect and empower consumers in their dealings with service providers, the CRTC put in place codes of conduct that help ensure that Canadians have clear contracts, are not surprised by higher bills, and have the information they need to make the best choices about their Internet, cellphone, and TV services.
Last year, the CRTC launched a comprehensive Consumer Protections Action Plan to modernize our approach to better serve Canadians. And to bring this Action Plan to life, we initiated four public proceedings.
The first proceeding focuses on preventing bill shock by ensuring Canadians receive advance notice when their discounts or service plans are about to expire.
The second aims to limit any fees Canadians might face when cancelling or changing plans.
The third explores how we can expand self-serve options, so that it is easier to find and choose the best Internet and cellphone plans.
And the fourth proceeding, which was the subject of a public hearing just last month, aims to make Internet plan details clearer and more consistent.
This is a crucial area of our work that will continue to be a focus for the CRTC.
In the coming weeks, we will launch a consultation to consider additional consumer protections, including clearer communications or refunds, when Canadians experience a service outage. And looking out further, we plan to combine our consumer protection codes into a single code that is more clear, simple, and consistent across all services. So, stay tuned.
Conclusion
Thank you again for welcoming us today.
If there is one message we hope you take away, it is this: telecommunications policy is not just about towers or cables -- it is about people, and it is about building a healthy industry that serves them well.
At the CRTC, we know that we do not have all the answers. But we do know this: better policy happens when we listen -- to individuals, to businesses, and to organizations like CIPPIC that help bring diverse voices into the conversation.
So here is where you come in.
Join our public consultations. Share your stories. Challenge our thinking.
Because at the end of the day, we know that the most effective regulatory riverbanks are the ones we build together.
Thank you.
