By Ahmad Hathout
Rogers is claiming in a Part 1 made public Monday that Concord Pacific Development Corp. is forcing it to pay a $300 per-unit fee to access two properties under construction in Burnaby, British Columbia.
The cable giant claims, since July 2024, it has been seeking access to the properties at 5889 Barker Avenue and 4750-4754 Kingsway, but Concord “has consistently refused to discuss access by Rogers to the Properties unless Rogers agrees to pay an upfront per unit entry fee of $300 to obtain Concord’s permission to access the multi-dwelling units after construction is complete.
“Concord has also stated that access to the Kingsway MDU will only be discussed after resolution of access to the Barker MDU,” Rogers further claims. “Most recently, Concord has refused to discuss access to the Barker MDU on the basis that ‘the site is not yet in condition where telecom installation or planning can be meaningfully accommodated.’”
According to Rogers, the Kingsway construction consists of three towers with 1309 condo units, with two of those towers expected to be completed by the end of the year. The Barker unit will accommodate 297 condo units with an expected completion in October 2028.
Rogers says this is prime construction time for telecoms to coordinate with the provincial utility to trench their facilities and then install them in the buildings. And, it claims, telecom Novus is “informing potential customers that it can provide services on occupancy.” (Novus did not respond to a request for comment.)
With that, Rogers is leveraging a CRTC decision from 2015 that found Concord and Novus acted in concert to delay Shaw Communications access to properties under construction, which would subsequently be served by Telus. In that decision, the CRTC noted that residents started to occupy two of the buildings and challenged Novus’s argument that competition is enhanced when a new entrant is given a head start in a new development.
“The core principles of the MDU access framework are to facilitate competition and maximize end-user choice,” the CRTC said at the time. “Competition is not enhanced by refusing a competitor access to an MDU, whether that competitor is an incumbent or a new entrant.”
The year before that, the CRTC ruled that delaying Bell’s access to a Toronto building until the condo board can be established was inconsistent with the MDU access framework.
Rogers is asking the CRTC to stop Novus from providing services in the buildings until the cable giant can install its facilities or 12 months from the date Rogers is granted access on reasonable terms and conditions. It is also asking for expedited consideration of the application.
Concord also did not respond to a request for comment.
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