CRTC internet ruling needs hard reboot from Carney Liberals

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If we want investment and jobs in Canada, we need smart decisions, not dumb ones. Too often, though, the federal government or federal regulators favour dumb decisions over smart ones and drive investment and jobs out of the country.

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In November 2023, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, Canada’s broadcast and telecom regulator, ruled that companies like Bell Canada needed to open their internet services to competitors.

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Look, we all want cheaper internet rates, cheaper mobile phone plans and what we are charged in Canada is outrageous. Yet, what the CRTC did was bring in a decision that cost thousands of jobs, billions in investments and pushed Bell to expand into the United States.

At the time of the November 2023 decision, Bell was in the middle of expanding their fibre internet product across the areas they serve. Doing so required billions of dollars in investments and resulted in thousands of jobs being lost for those doing the work.

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With their idiotic decision in late 2023, the CRTC told Bell they had to open their network to competitors as soon as it was installed at discounted rates. This meant that Bell’s competitors could choose to not invest a dime, but come in and offer the same product at a reduced cost right away.

If you are Bell or Cogeco, which has appealed the decision, why would you spend money to expand your network to the top tier that customers now demand? Your competitors could just come in and sell your own product at a reduced cost with zero investment.

A few months after the CRTC decision, Bell announced 4,800 layoffs, most of them related to the decision not to expand their network. They also pulled back billions of dollars of investments into expanding their fibre internet.

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In late 2024, they announced they would spend $5 billion to acquire a U.S. internet services company called Ziply that operates in the Pacific northwest.

There is no question that without the CRTC decision, Bell would have invested that money in Canada. Due to the decision, though, the investment went stateside, as will many future investments by Bell and others.

Why would anyone put money into investing in Canada when doing so would immediately benefit competitors? In fact, that was the position Telus took before the CRTC made its decision in fall 2023.

“Mandated wholesale access discourages investment in new technologies and trades innovation and dynamic competition for underinvestment and stasis in innovation. This will leave Canadians behind as technology moves forward, but investment does not,” the company said in a submission to the CRTC in April 2023.

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After the CRTC affirmed its decision in June 2024, Rogers came out against it, even though they could benefit in some markets.

“The CRTC’s misguided decision runs counter to the federal government’s own agenda to drive real competition, encourage network investment and expand connectivity to rural and remote regions of Canada. At a time when Canada needs investment to grow the economy, the commission is doubling down on a failed policy that won’t create competition and will reduce capital investment,” the company said.

In markets like Windsor, Rogers could use this decision by the CRTC to resell the investment made by their competitor Cogeco and weaken them to the point of collapse. Still, Rogers called out this CRTC decision as wrong.

We all want cheaper internet prices and there are ways to get there, but the CRTC’s plan is not a route anyone should be following.

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s cabinet has a chance to overturn this CRTC decision next week. If they are serious about ensuring future investment in Canada, they will rebuke the regulator. If they are not, they will let this horrible decision stand.

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