Party proposes new Crown corporation to compete with telecoms
WINDSOR – NDP leader Jagmeet Singh announced today the party’s plan to lower Canadian cell phone and internet bills at a press conference in Windsor.
“This is something that Justin Trudeau promised he would do something about, he promised he would make things better,” Singh said at the press conference. “He promised two years ago that he would lower the price of cellphone fees per family by about $1,000, well two years later, that hasn’t happened. He hasn’t done anything to lower the cost of cellphone fees… cellphone and Internet.”
Singh said the NDP would cap cell phone and Internet fees to save people money.
“We’re going to take on Justin Trudeau and we’re going to take on big telecos and say you’ve got to stop gouging people and the rates have got to be more affordable,” he said.
Singh later clarified that by affordable, he means in line with the average cellphone and Internet fees of other OECD countries.
“The other thing we want to do is we want to make sure that the plans for Internet are truly unlimited and not this fake unlimited where once you reach a certain point your Internet slows down… we want to mandate truly unlimited data plans,” he said.
The NDP’s official platform specifies the party intends make sure “every Canadian has access to affordable, reliable high-speed broadband within four years.” One way it will do this is by taking the first steps towards creating “a Crown corporation to ensure the delivery of quality, affordable telecom services to every community,” according to the party’s official platform.
Singh further “committed to work with the CRTC to force telecom giants to reduce the prices on all their plans and cap their fees below the global average,” a press release for the today’s press conference reads.
