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e-4039 (Media and telecommunications)
E-petition
Initiated by Amtoj Uppal from Québec, Quebec
Original language of petition: English
Petition to the Government of Canada
Whereas:
- Greater competition in the telecommunications industry directly correlates to consumers receiving better services and paying lower fees;
- This trend can easily be confirmed by analyzing the level of choice in services and their costs in most advanced economies;
- Canadians pay exorbitant amounts to carriers because the market is run by the small oligopoly of Rogers, Bell, and Telus;
- These companies have shown a strong commitment to eliminating all challengers before their dominant positions are threatened;
- A past government initiative to create competition domestically recognized this issue and helped form Public Mobile, Mobilicity, and Wind Mobile;
- This initiative failed with Public Mobile purchased by Telus in 2013, Mobilicity by Rogers in 2015, and Wind Mobile by Shaw in 2016;
- Competition continues to erode further with Rogers and Shaw currently battling the Competition Bureau in pursuit of a merger;
- Verizon, an American-owned company capable of remaining independent, was lobbied out of Canada in 2013 by the major carriers;
- Foreign-owned firms would have trouble entering Canada regardless due to Section 16 of the Telecommunications Act requiring carriers be Canadian-owned; and
- One of the objectives of the Telecommunications Act is to promote Canadian carriers, not to rid them of foreign-owned competition entirely.
We, the undersigned, citizens and residents of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to loosen the Canadian ownership requirements in Section 16 of the Telecommunications Act to allow foreign carriers to do business in the country and provide real competition in the market in order to help drive costs down for consumers.
- Open for signature
- June 17, 2022, at 4:05 p.m. (EDT)
- Closed for signature
- October 15, 2022, at 4:05 p.m. (EDT)
