GATINEAU – Despite receiving a request from Rogers Communications to extend the final comment date of the CRTC’s wireless policy review proceeding by another two weeks (which was widely supported by other parties), the Commission decided to stick with the July 15th deadline.
That deadline, of course, was already a months-long extension enacted due to the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on the companies’ and Commission’s operations.
On June 25th, Rogers Communications filed a request to extend the date by two more weeks. Bell Mobility, Videotron, TbayTel, the Canadian Internet Policy & Public Interest Clinic and OpenMedia supported the request, while Telus, SSi Micro and others indicated they didn’t oppose the request.
“The main reasons parties gave in support of an extension included the workload for parties’ regulatory staff, who are working on multiple ongoing proceedings in the face of the Covid-19 situation, as well as the beginning of the summer vacation period,” reads the Commission letter to the parties.
“This proceeding has already been subject to numerous delays for a variety of reasons and there is a strong public interest in closing the record and moving ahead with the decision making process,” adds the letter.
“More than four months have elapsed since the completion of the public hearing, and, despite some minor additions, the record has not substantially changed since that point. This is a significant amount of time even amid the uncertainty brought on by the pandemic. Parties have not provided any compelling explanation for why they would have been unable to use this time to at least begin to prepare their final comments. Further, parties have already had a separate opportunity to provide any comments they may have had on the effect of the Covid-19 situation in relation to the issues being examined in this proceeding. Finally, final comments are generally intended to be used to provide a summary of parties’ views on the information already on the record.”
“The CRTC put the public interest ahead of the big telco’s summer vacation plans,” said Dot Mobile founder Alex Bauman on the company web site. “I’m happy about this, not because someone’s vacation is potentially ruined, but because so many Canadians are without work and relying on CERB to make ends meet. Delaying anything that’s in their interest so that a few individuals can go on vacation is absurd.”
