NDP calls for hearings on wireless industry

OTTAWA— New Democrats are demanding special Commons hearings to give Canadians more information on federal government plans that could change the future of the fast-growing wireless industry.

“I’m calling on you to help Canadians have their say, out in the open” on telecommunications policy, NDP industry critic Chris Charlton said Monday in a letter to the head of the Commons industry committee.

Even though Parliament isn’t sitting, Charlton wants Conservative MP David Sweet to convene extraordinary meetings of the committee to hear witnesses on the increasingly controversial wireless policies of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government.

She said hearings are urgent because telecom companies must indicate by Sept. 17 if they will take part in Ottawa’s auction next winter of coveted airwave licences. The possible entry of U.S. wireless giant Verizon into the auction has sparked a bruising national war of words pitting the Harper Conservatives against large Canadian telecoms Rogers, Telus and Bell Canada.

Charlton also said a public airing of the issue is needed because Industry Minister James Moore “has gone so far as to launch a partisan website and improvise a behind-closed-doors national tour on the issue.”

She was referring to consumersfirst.ca, asite sponsored by the Conservatives and Moore’s plans to speak with interested parties across Canada this week.

Canada’s large telecom companies say the rules for the upcoming wireless auction are unfair because they could give Verizon a competitive advantage. But Ottawa has brushed aside this criticism as self-promotion by Rogers, Telus and Bell Canada, stressing that the Conservatives’ priority is to give consumers better wireless options by having more providers in Canada.