OTTAWA – The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) today expressed its support in a comment filed in answer to a consultation in the Canada Gazette for the Government’s proposed new “Policy Direction” to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), intended to protect consumers, encourage affordability, increase competition and encourage innovation in telecommunications services.
“PIAC supports the Government’s proposed New Policy Direction to the CRTC to re-focus Canadian telecommunications regulation on consumers, cost and choice,” said John Lawford, Executive Director and General Counsel at PIAC. “We expect it will encourage concrete changes like more wireless service options, more Internet service options at higher speeds and all of it at prices Canadians can better afford.”
PIAC also recommended abolishing a previous Policy Direction from 2006 that favoured “market forces” in CRTC decision-making, stating its “time has passed and that it should, in reasonably short order, be revoked.”
For more information, please contact:
John Lawford
Executive Director and General Counsel
Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC)
(613) 562-4002 ×25
jlawford@piac.ca
www.piac.ca