{"id":216757,"date":"2025-06-26T20:19:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-26T20:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/216757\/"},"modified":"2025-06-26T20:19:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T20:19:10","slug":"ottawa-must-stop-the-crtcs-misguided-dogmatic-internet-decision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/216757\/","title":{"rendered":"Ottawa must stop the CRTC\u2019s misguided,\u00a0dogmatic\u00a0internet decision"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Earlier in June, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission upheld its decision allowing large telecoms to resell internet services on each other’s networks.Sean Kilpatrick\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Perron is the president and chief executive officer of Cogeco. <\/p>\n

We will one day look back at 2025 and marvel at how Canadians from coast to coast, and their governments, came together to confront a new economic reality by doing everything possible to accelerate economic growth, increase productivity and remove regulatory barriers to investment and innovation. <\/p>\n

All Canadians, that is, except for the CRTC.<\/p>\n

On Friday, June 20, the CRTC tripled down on a decision<\/a> that would let the Big Three telecommunications firms resell services through the internet networks of their rivals. That will lead to less competition and investment in the broadband infrastructure we need to thrive as a country. <\/p>\n

The wholesale framework was intended to benefit smaller players who lack the infrastructure they need to compete effectively. It was meant to allow them to access \u2013 and sell their services through \u2013 the infrastructure of bigger rivals.<\/p>\n

That framework was not intended for the reverse \u2013 for Telus, Rogers and Bell to not only resell each other\u2019s networks but those of their much smaller competitors <\/b>as well.<\/p>\n

Under this policy, the Big Three can use regulation, which is normally designed to curb the dominance of big players, to get even bigger. Despite overwhelming evidence that continuing this flawed policy will hurt investment and competition \u2013 and broad opposition from competitors across the country \u2013 the CRTC is sticking to it. <\/p>\n

The CRTC\u2019s approach directly threatens crucial investments, hurts competition and undermines long-term affordability for Canadians. As telecommunications are now fundamental to all major national projects \u2013 from housing to AI \u2013 this decision undermines the very foundations of Prime Minister Mark Carney\u2019s<\/a> agenda and Canada\u2019s economic future.<\/p>\n

Local and regional internet providers, unions, consumer groups, competition experts and others have all called upon the CRTC to exclude the Big Three from leveraging regulation to access other providers\u2019 networks. The regulator\u2019s decision ignores all those voices. <\/p>\n

Why are Canada\u2019s largest telecom companies selling stakes in their core infrastructure?<\/a><\/p>\n

It is now time for the cabinet and Industry Minister M\u00e9lanie Joly to step in and overturn the CRTC decision to save real, long-term competition in this vital arena. The Big Three already control all but a small fraction of the Canadian telecom market. The CRTC\u2019s flawed policy gives them a regulatory tool to further expand their market dominance, allowing them to ride on the networks of smaller, regional competitors at subsidized rates. This will translate into less choice and fewer affordable services.<\/p>\n

Regional telecommunication providers such as Cogeco play a key role in bringing competition and reliable connectivity to thousands of communities across the country. Our future growth \u2013 and the future of internet competition in Canada \u2013 is being challenged by this misguided CRTC decision. <\/p>\n

This will have significant, adverse consequences for Canadian consumers and communities: reduced network investment, compromised rural connectivity, fewer jobs in regional communities and, ultimately, less choice and higher prices. <\/p>\n

Canadians have elected a government focused on strengthening Canada\u2019s economy and ensuring Canadians have the tools they need to preserve their economic sovereignty and expand opportunity. It\u2019s time for Ottawa to intervene to maintain the conditions for sustainable competition and for Canada to win.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Earlier in June, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission upheld its decision allowing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":216758,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3161],"tags":[6934,6925,6935,1500,6918,6936,943,6917,6930,6931,6927,6919,6916,1700,2266,728,6929,6923,6946,6920,6921,1234,3082,6926,388,3611,6607,603,6941,6942,6944,6939,6943,6937,6940,6922,6932,6933,285,3027,6938,6924,53,183,6928,16,15,727,263,6945],"class_list":{"0":"post-216757","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-internet","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-arts-news","10":"tag-bc","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-breaking-news-video","13":"tag-british-columbia","14":"tag-canada","15":"tag-canada-news","16":"tag-canada-sports","17":"tag-canada-sports-news","18":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","19":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","20":"tag-canadian-news","21":"tag-economy","22":"tag-education","23":"tag-environment","24":"tag-federal-government","25":"tag-foreign-news","26":"tag-globe-and-mail","27":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","28":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","29":"tag-government","30":"tag-internet","31":"tag-life-news","32":"tag-lifestyle","33":"tag-local-news","34":"tag-manitoba","35":"tag-national-news","36":"tag-new-brunswick","37":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","38":"tag-northwest-territories","39":"tag-nova-scotia","40":"tag-nunavut","41":"tag-ontario","42":"tag-pei","43":"tag-photos","44":"tag-political-news","45":"tag-political-opinion","46":"tag-politics","47":"tag-politics-news","48":"tag-quebec","49":"tag-sports-news","50":"tag-technology","51":"tag-travel","52":"tag-trudeau","53":"tag-uk","54":"tag-united-kingdom","55":"tag-us-news","56":"tag-world-news","57":"tag-yukon"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}