Vicky Eatrides to the Public Interest Advocacy Centre

“Taking action on what Canadians care about”

Ottawa, Ontario
November 28, 2024

Vicky Eatrides, Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC)

Check against delivery

Good evening, and thank you for the warm welcome.

Before I begin my remarks, I would like to acknowledge that we are gathered on the traditional unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishnaabeg people. Let’s take a moment to thank the Anishnaabeg people and to pay respect to their Elders.

I am happy to be joined today by some of my colleagues, including Bram Abramson, the CRTC’s Commissioner for Ontario, and Scott Hutton, our Vice-President of Consumer, Analytics and Strategy.

It is a pleasure to be here. Thank you, PIAC, for inviting me, and thank you for your tireless efforts in bringing Canadians’ perspectives to the table. You inform our work and you help us make decisions that benefit Canadians.

As you know, the CRTC is an independent quasi-judicial tribunal that regulates the Canadian communications sector in the public interest. We hold public consultations on telecommunications and broadcasting matters and we make decisions based on the public record.

In all of these decisions, we are focused on the needs of Canadians.

I often think about something the acclaimed Canadian actor Keanu Reeves once said to a journalist. He said, “the simple act of paying attention can take you a long way.”

And at the CRTC, paying attention to Canadians’ needs is at the heart of our work. As a public institution, we care about what Canadians care about.

That is why we are taking action to empower Canadians when it comes to Internet and cellphone services. Because ensuring that Canadians have the ability to make informed choices goes a long way to helping ensure a healthy, vibrant and competitive communications system.

So, the question is: what do Canadians need that they don’t have today? And then, at the CRTC, we have to ask, how can we, as regulators, help?

To answer those questions, we are listening to Canadians. As you know, we engage with Canadians directly through public consultations, stakeholder meetings, public hearings, and discussions with groups and communities. And like everyone else, we keep a close eye on the news. Through all of these channels, we hear about the impact our communications system has on the daily lives of Canadians and what they need from their services.

Through those conversations, we have learned a few things, and we are taking action. Let me focus on three of those things this evening.

First, we know that Canadians want clear contracts, and they want to be reassured that the price they agreed to will not change.

Second, we know Canadians need better information to make informed choices about their services.

And third, we know that Canadians want more affordable choices.

So, let’s start with clearer contracts and preventing bill shock.

Preventing bill shock for Canadians

As I mentioned, we keep a close eye on the news and on the concerns of Canadians who reach out to us.

Recently, we saw stories of Canadians being surprised by higher bills. This includes stories like those of a senior, Rhonda, who came home from a trip abroad to find a cellphone bill with roaming fees of almost $300.

We know that Rhonda is not alone. Canadians have told us that they pay too much in roaming fees. So we looked into roaming fees. And what did we find? We found that roaming fees for Canadian travelers are often inflexible, causing consumers to pay a flat fee of $10 to $16 per day regardless of how much they use their cellphone.

That is why, last month, we called on the large cellphone providers to reduce these fees. We are currently reviewing responses from the companies before determining next steps.

We also read stories in the news recently of Canadians who were surprised to see increases to their monthly TV bills because of increases to set-top box fees. This happened even though they were told the service price would be fixed for a period of time and would not increase.

We also heard stories of Canadians who were surprised by increases in other fees on their bills, and are feeling frustrated that their contracts are hard to understand.

We know that Canadians need clear information about their bills, including when service providers increase the price of services in a customer’s existing contract.

We have been paying attention to what Canadians are saying, and have been taking action to address their concerns.

As a starting point, we called on service providers to ensure that they do not surprise their customers with price increases beyond what they had agreed to in their contracts.

We also reminded providers that Canadians should not be surprised by large and unexpected one-time payments when they put an end to their cellphone rental contracts.

If concrete steps are not taken, we are prepared to launch a public proceeding to help protect Canadians from large and unexpected payments.

While this work is ongoing, the consumer protection codes established by the CRTC -- one for Internet, one for cellphone services, and a third for cable and satellite television -- remain in place.

Among other things, these codes help ensure that Canadians have clear and easy-to-understand information in their contracts. The codes are administered by the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services, or the CCTS.

The CCTS is an effective partner in helping Canadians resolve issues with their service providers, and customers need to know that they can contact the CCTS if they cannot resolve the issue with their provider.

It has come to our attention, however, that Canadians are not always being made aware of the CCTS by their service providers. Our own public opinion research shows that a majority of Canadians with a complaint did not submit it to the CCTS, with over half of respondents saying that they were not aware of the CCTS. This means that many Canadians do not know where to turn if they run into issues with their service providers.

To address this, we recently reminded service providers of their obligation to better inform Canadians about the CCTS and required them to tell us how customer complaints are being addressed and monitored.

Preventing bill shock, receiving bills that are easy-to-understand, and knowing where to turn when you have a complaint are all issues that Canadians care about. And we are taking action.

We have acted quickly, but we know that this is a starting point. We will take further action if we need to, to ensure long-term benefits for Canadians.  

Helping Canadians make informed choices

So that’s an overview of what we are doing to make sure Canadians have clearer contracts.

Let me now turn to the second thing we are focussing on, which is another thing that Canadians care about. That is their ability to make informed choices about Internet and cellphone plans.

We are paying attention to Canadians when they tell us they need better information to make more informed decisions, and that it should be easier to change or cancel plans.

Let me give you a couple of examples. An individual recently wrote to us to complain that while they could easily add services online, any other plan changes or cancellations needed to be done over the phone.

Another individual wrote to say that they had spent three days being transferred between multiple customer service representatives when they tried to cancel their Internet services.

We agree with Canadians when they say that it should be easier to change or cancel plans.

We are also focussed on helping ensure Internet and cellphone plans are clear and transparent so that Canadians are empowered to choose the services that best meet their needs.

This is why last week we launched three public consultations to help ensure Canadians have more control over their Internet and cellphone services.

The first consultation is about ensuring Canadians are notified when their plans or discounts are about to end.

The second looks at making sure that Canadians are not being charged fees when they cancel or change their plans.

And the third is about providing Canadians simpler ways to manage their plans, such as an online portal where they can change or cancel their services without having to speak to a customer service representative. 

And in the coming days, we will be launching a public consultation to gather views on, among other things, whether Internet service providers should be required to display information in a standardized label to make it easier for Canadians to compare Internet plans.

The labels would provide clear and easy-to-understand information, such as speed and price, similar to the nutritional labels we see on food products providing information on serving sizes and calories.

These public consultations will allow Canadians to tell us more about their experiences, to tell us in real terms what they care about, so that we can take action.

We are also looking at ways to improve protections for Canadians. We have plans to review the three codes I mentioned, and to possibly combine them to provide one simple and clear code.

We also want to build on the CCTS’s successful track record of resolving issues between Canadians and service providers. We will be launching a public consultation to see what, if any, additional help it could offer to Canadians.

So that is some of the action we are taking to help give Canadians better information, so they can make informed choices about their services.

Improving choice for Canadians

Let me now turn to something else Canadians have been telling us they care about: more affordable Internet and cellphone services. 

Our public opinion research tells us that roughly half of Canadians feel Internet services have become less affordable in the past year. And just 22% of Canadians feel like they have lower cellphone service prices than they had last year.

And it’s not just statistics. During our public hearing earlier this year on high-speed Internet, PIAC and Open Media told us about people like Sandy in British Columbia, whose relatives pay more for Internet than they pay for food each month. And about Brigitte in Ontario, who considers the Internet her only social lifeline and has to make compromises elsewhere in her budget to afford it.  

So over the past year, we have been making decisions to improve competition in the marketplace. Because we know more competitive markets will deliver more sustainable, affordable choices for Canadians.

Last year, we established new rules that allow regional cellphone providers to compete across Canada using the networks of large companies, increasing competition across the country.

In Internet services, we released a major decision just three months ago that gives competitors a workable way to sell Internet services using the modern fibre networks of large providers across Canada. And a month ago, we set the interim wholesale rates that competitors will pay for that access.

We are already seeing results from the decision we made for cellphone services and from our interim decision to improve Internet services competition. Canadians now have more choice and can go online today and find plans that were not there a year ago.

We also know that Canadians benefit from a healthy telecommunications industry, where companies invest in their networks. That is why our decisions include incentives for large companies to continue making investments and connecting more Canadians to high-quality and reliable telecommunications networks.

For Internet services, the new access granted in the decision applies only to fibre that has already been built. Any new fibre built by the large telephone companies will be made available to competitors in five years.

This head start gives the large companies an opportunity to more quickly make a return on their investments and encourages them to connect more Canadians to fibre sooner.

For cellphone services, regional competitors can use the networks of the large cellphone companies for a period of seven years while they build out their own networks.

Our decisions promote competition and investment because Canadians need more affordable choices in telecommunications services, and they need healthy companies investing in and expanding high-quality networks.

Conclusion

So let me end today by going back to the words of Keanu Reeves. At the CRTC, we are paying attention to the needs of Canadians.

What Canadians care about, we care about.

That means responding to what Canadians – like Rhonda, Sandy, and Brigitte – are telling us.

It means making sure that Canadians have all the information they need now and in the future.

And it means ensuring we have healthy and vibrant companies providing Canadians with more choice, and affordable and high-quality services.

Everyone here today has a role to play in building a communications system that benefits all Canadians.

We look forward to seeing what new ideas and solutions we can find to empower Canadians even more.

Thank you.