Union wants Crown to block Verizon
U.S. phone giant may come here
A major union is calling on the Harper government to set up a Crown corporation that would be the country’s fourth major wireless carrier called “Canada Wireless” to potentially keep U.S. giant telecom Verizon from coming into the domestic cellphone market.
The Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada is also calling for Ottawa to rescind what it perceives as advantages for Verizon Wireless, which has expressed interest in entering the Canadian market.
The union has thousands of members at BCE Inc.’s Bell Canada, one of Canada’s largest wireless carriers and a leading force behind a high-profile campaign to get the Harper government to change its current telecom policy.
“To get out of a crisis it’s important for a government to be able to think ‘outside the box’ and setting up a public telco company would be a smart way to do just that,” union president Dave Coles said.
“If the government is intent on providing consumers with a fourth major carrier in each market it should acquire one of the struggling small telcos, reserve some of the available 700-megahertz spectrum for public use and establish ‘Canada Wireless’ as a Crown corporation,” Coles said.
The Conservative government has shown no interest in changing its policy of more competition in the wireless industry and launched a website on Friday aimed at winning over consumers.
“We’re putting consumers first and standing up for choice in Canada’s wireless industry — are you with us?” the website asks.
The government website said it has a policy of “procompetition” and noted that since 2008 the average cost of wireless services for Canadians has decreased by nearly 20 per cent.
Telecom analyst Troy Crandall called the public duelling “a bit ridiculous.”
“I don’t know who’s worse — the telecom companies or the government,” said Crandall, of investment firm MacDougall, MacDougall and MacTier in Montreal.
“It’s unsettling to investors and that’s where our concern is,” adding that foreign investors will be encouraged to stay away from investing in Canadian telecoms with these public battles.
Crandall said the idea of the government setting up a wireless Crown corporation would also be met with raised eyebrows by the international financial community.
“Perhaps one of the reasons Canada is having so much trouble getting foreign entrants into our wireless space is maybe because they’re not so happy with the political or policy changes that have been going on in Canada.”
Coles said other governments have taken ownership roles in telecom companies.
He said New Zealand’s government bought a small Internet provider in 2007 to help strengthen that country’s telecom sector and Saskatchewan’s SaskTel is a Crown corporation.
Coles also said a Crown telecommunications company would hire Canadians, continue to build out the industry and return the surplus to the public.