NORTH BAY and OTTAWA – Bell Canada’s First Nations customers in Ontario are asking Bell Canada for a public apology for what they say is an unreasonable delay in processing refunds of the provincial sales tax portion of their bills.
The Ontario government directed businesses in the province to honour First Nations treaty rights by exempting the 8% PST portion of the new 13% Harmonized Sales Tax. All telecommunications for First Nations citizens in Ontario were to be PST exempt starting September 1, 2010.
Anishinabek deputy grand chief Glen Hare said in a statement that he has received “hundreds” of complaints from homeowners in the 40 Anishinabek Nation communities across the province about the company’s “lack of response” to the requests and overall “poor customer service”.
"Maybe if they were paying rent for all those poles on our territories the phone companies would pay more attention to First Nation customer service," Hare said in the statement. "We’re looking for Bell Canada to issue a public apology to our citizens and start obeying the law."
Hare said that Bell asked its First Nations customers to complete a refund form and forward copies of their certificates of Indian Status either by fax or on-line. But he said that many of those customers are being told that the forms can’t be located and are being asked to re-submit the information.
In response to an inquiry from Cartt.ca, Bell spokesperson Jacqueline Michelis said that Bell has been in contact with the Anishinabek Nation and Union of Ontario Indians “to assure them we are eager to resolve the issue”.
“We do have a specific process in place to address the special tax exempt status of First Nations”, Michelis wrote in an email. “However, we have clearly had an issue with the volume of requests coming in – we have added resources to address the backlog, and we are also improving our processes to better communicate with First Nations’ customers the status of their applications.”
Michelis said that the company’s Ontario-based First Nations customers will receive “the full value of their exemption retroactive to September 1”, and offered an apology on behalf of the company “to anyone experiencing any undue delay”.
The Anishinabek Nation established the Union of Ontario Indians (UOI) as its secretariat in 1949. The UOI is a political advocate for 40 member communities across Ontario, representing approximately 55,000 people.
– Lesley Hunter
