e-4039 (Media and telecommunications)
Original language of petition: English
Petition to the Government of Canada
- 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.
- Open for signature
- June 17, 2022, at 4:05 p.m. (EDT)
- Closed for signature
- October 15, 2022, at 4:05 p.m. (EDT)