GATINEAU — Cartt.ca readers may remember during February’s wireless policy review hearing Telus CEO and president Darren Entwistle said his company’s board had signed a resolution to cut network investments by $1 billion, which would result in 5,000 job losses, if the CRTC mandated mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs).
During his appearance at the hearing, Entwistle offered to file the board’s resolution in confidence to the CRTC, which Telus subsequently did on March 10. According to the Commission, Telus filed the board resolution document entirely in confidence and did not file an abridged version for the public record.
That was followed by a letter dated March 17 from the Canadian Network Operators Consortium (CNOC), in which CNOC requested the Telus document be disclosed in its entirety, both for reasons of procedural fairness and to allow parties to scrutinize alleged conditions under which Telus would reduce investments and jobs.
Telus responded to say it wanted the information contained in the board resolution document to remain confidential, but if the Commission decided it was to be made public, Telus preferred to withdraw the document from the record of the proceeding.
In a letter dated June 22, the Commission has now given Telus two options: either disclose the board resolution publicly or withdraw it from the record of the proceeding, by June 29, 2020.
By allowing Telus the opportunity to withdraw the document from the record, the Commission is making an exception to the general Rules of Procedure, the Commission notes.
