OTTAWA – The long-distance rates Bell has charged for collect telephone calls originating from Ontario correctional facilities is the subject of a new Part 1 application to the CRTC, posted on the telecom regulator’s website last Friday.
The application dated Oct. 27 is from two Ontario residents, who previously began a proposed class action in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice against Bell and the Ontario government. They alleged the long-distance rates charged by Bell “were contrary to provincial consumer protection legislation and unconscionable, amongst other allegations, and sought to recover damages against Bell,” reads their application. They also alleged Ontario breached its fiduciary obligations to inmates.
Bell and the Ontario government argued the class proceeding should be stayed for lack of jurisdiction. The Ontario court agreed to temporarily stay the action pending a CRTC decision to accept the applicants’ dispute over the long-distance rates charged by Bell.
In their application to the CRTC, the two citizens, Ransome Capay and Vanessa Fareau, note Bell’s long-distance telephone call rates were not charged in accordance with any tariff, because pursuant to a 1997 CRTC decision Bell was no longer required to file rate tariffs for long-distance collect calls.
The application seeks a number of determinations by the CRTC, including whether the CRTC forbore from setting long-distance rates between June 1, 2013 and July 29, 2021, and whether the applicants’ consumer complaint should be heard by the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services (CCTS) or the CRTC.
If the complaint should be heard by the CRTC, the applicants ask whether the CRTC can set retroactive long-distance rates for inmate collect calls and impose retroactive tariffs for the time period in question. If yes, the applicants want to know if the rates charged by Bell were “just and reasonable”, and if they were not, whether they are entitled to damages, financial remedies, credits and reimbursements “to be paid to all consumers anywhere in Canada who paid the Bell long-distance telephone call rates, regardless of whether or not they were a Bell customer, for collect calls originating from Ontario jails between June 1, 2013 and July 29, 2021.”
If the CRTC determines it cannot or should not set retroactive long-distance collect call rates from Ontario jails or it cannot or should not determine whether Bell’s rates were just and reasonable, the applicants say they will seek to lift the temporary stay in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice and jointly pursue their class action against Bell and Ontario.
The CRTC is giving interested parties until Jan. 11, 2024 to submit comments on the application.
