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“This is the same old story of hard-working families getting gouged by greedy corporations,” says James Clancy, NUPGE national president.
Ottawa (2 Feb. 2011) -Ottawa (3 Feb. 2011) – The Harper government should reject a decision by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) which allows giant communications corporations to charge internet users higher rates based on how much they download from the internet, says the National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE).
“This is the same old story of hard-working families getting gouged by greedy corporations,” says James Clancy, NUPGE national president. “The Harper government’s decision to review the CRTC ruling is just a stall tactic. They should stand up for Canadians and immediately reject the decision.”
The controversial practice in question is called usage-based billing. Small internet providers rent bandwith space from the big corporations (like Bell, Rogers, Shaw and Telus) and offer their customers unlimited access at lower flat rates. The CRTC ruling effectively kills unlimited plans by allowing the big firms to charge the small providers higher rates based on how much bandwith space their customers use.
At the end of the day, the small providers will be forced to charge their customers more and put a cap on their internet use.
“Canadians are already paying close to the highest cell phone rates and text message fees in the world. These corporations are already immensely profitable. And they’re about to reap even higher profits thanks to the billions in corporate tax cuts being implemented by the Harper government. Enough is enough,” says Clancy.
The CRTC ruling has sparked outrage from Canadians across the country. Leading the grassroots opposition campaign is an advocacy group called Open Media. NUPGE is a founding member of this grassroots organization. More than 265,000 people have signed a petition at https://openmedia.org/en/ca/look-back-our-stop-meter-campaign calling on the government to reverse the CRTC decision. “This move by the CRTC and big Telecom companies will crush your wallet, innovative services and Canada's digital competitiveness,” the group says on its website.
Other critics have suggested that the reluctance of the federal government to intervene on these matters will have broader impacts on the Canadian economy. NDP MP Charlie Angus says the decision will make Canada a “digital backwater” and urged the government to take swift action. Michael Geist, a law professor at the University of Ottawa where he holds the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law, says there are serious implications of this decision: “Far beyond consumers paying more for Internet access, there’s a real negative effect on the Canadian digital economy, harming innovation and keeping new business models out of the country."
Over the last several years NUPGE has raised various consumer advocacy issues – through a popular series of publications called Smart Money – and raised awareness about the braoder issue of internet access and control in Canada. The union has produced research which shows that Canadians arebeing held hostage by a handful of giant communications corporations and as a result are paying through the nose for services. The union has also called for internet neutrality legislation in Canadaafter learning that Belland Rogerswere dictating how much customers could use the internet through a practice called “throttling.”
NUPGE
The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) is one of Canada's largest labour organizations with over 340,000 members. Our mission is to improve the lives of working families and to build a stronger Canada by ensuring our common wealth is used for the common good. NUPGE
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