Will Liberals nix merger or give us higher cellphone bills?

Although the House of Commons didn’t resume sitting until this week, allparty Parliamentary committees were already sitting and reviewing essential subjects of national interest.

One of the Parliamentary Committees sitting last week was INDU (Committee on Industry and Technology), which is reviewing the proposed takeover of Shaw Communications by Rogers.

This proposed deal has faced several obstacles, including being opposed by Canada’s Competition Bureau, which recently went to court to block the deal.

The Federal Court ruled against the bureau, leaving the final decision to approve or reject this proposed deal to the Liberal Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, François-Philippe Champagne, who is also the MP for SaintMaurice-Champlain in Quebec.

Aside from the bureau’s opposition to this proposed deal, an initial study from the INDU Committee resulted in four recommendations, one being that “the Committee believes the merger should not proceed.”

The primary concern of many opponents to this proposed deal is that it could result in even less competition in an industry that already has very little competition for the benefit of Canadian consumers.

Canadians pay some of the highest cellphone bills in the world.

In fact, during the 2019 election, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised that his Liberal government would reduce cellphone bills by 25% within two years, saving the “average Canadian family $1,000” a year.

On Feb. 9 of last year, in the House of

Commons, Prime Minister Trudeau stated, “We promised Canadian families that we would reduce the cost of their cellphone bill. Today, I am happy to announce that we have met our 25% price reduction target. In fact, we have done so three months ahead of schedule.”

In my MP Report from Feb. 23, 2022, I asked whether your cellphone bills have decreased by 25%, as Trudeau claimed.

The response to this question was overwhelming, and almost every reply I received indicated that what the prime minister stated was patently false.

Many individuals even shared their wireless bills, which showed a cost increase.

Several citizens also noted that wireless plans had changed so that they now paid separately for the plan and the phone instead of being combined, as was the case previously.

In every example I received from citizens, people were paying more overall.

Recently, Professor Michael Geist, who is the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa, wrote on this proposed deal and the upcoming political decision that Minister Champagne must make.

Geist stated: “Minister Champagne and the government can choose to stand up for Canadian consumers and say this deal doesn’t go ahead on their watch. Or they can stand with big telecom companies and choose to make matters even worse. It’s Champagne’s choice.”

Dan Albas is the Member of Parliament for Central Okanagan Similkameen Nicola. He can be reached at Dan.Albas@parl.gc.ca or call toll free 1-800-665-8711.