Order please. Good morning everyone, and welcome to this public
consultation. My name is David Colville, and I will be the Chair for today’s session.
Seated next to me are Commissioners David McKendry and Martha Wilson. Also seated here are
a number of our Commission staff, including our hearing Secretary, Gary Krushen from the
Winnipeg regional office, Legal Counsel Geoff Batstone, and the team leader for this
application, Prospero Vito. I invite you to call upon any of these people with any
questions that you might have, particularly with respect to today’s process.
Before we begin, I would like to say that we are happy to be here in Winnipeg, and are
pleased to have this opportunity to hear your views on MTS’ application. As you know,
this public consultation is part of a written process designed to explore the
appropriateness and timing of MTS’ opportunity to recover costs associated with
income tax. You may also be aware that the original procedure for this application did not
include an oral hearing. After receiving a number of letters from subscribers and other
groups requesting that we hold an oral hearing, the Commission looked at the procedure
again, and concluded that a public consultation should be held in Manitoba. You can take
this hearing as your proof that the Commission listens to the public, and values the views
of the individual telephone subscriber.
I expect that we will sit this morning until about 12:15, at which point we will break
for lunch. We will recommence at 1:00 p.m. and sit until 5:00 p.m. at the latest. Those
people who have registered in advance to make a presentation will be called by the
Secretary. If there is anyone else here today who wishes to make an oral submission, but
who hasn’t already registered, I would ask that you give your name to the Secretary
— time permitting, we will fit you into the schedule. Any participant not in
attendance when the Secretary calls his or her name will be called on again later.
You will find that we may wish to ask the presenters a few questions for purposes of
clarification, and to get a better sense of their positions. I want to emphasize, however,
that we would like to keep the process as informal as possible. While we often hear from
groups who are familiar with telecommunications issues and the Commission’s
processes, we are also eager to hear the views and opinions of individual subscribers. If
you don’t feel comfortable answering questions, just let us know.
At this point, I would like to ask legal counsel to address any additional matters with
respect to the process that we will be following today.
LEGAL COUNSEL:
As the Chair has already mentioned, the Secretary will call out the names of the
presenters starting with the parties that registered in advance. When your name is called,
please come forward to the microphone. The submissions heard at today’s consultation
will be transcribed, and will form part of the record of the proceeding. To ensure that
the recording and transcription people are able to produce an accurate transcript, when
speaking, please ensure that the microphone is turned on. If you would like to purchase a
copy of the transcript, you should make the necessary arrangements with the official
reporter who is seated behind me at the raised table.
In the interests of ensuring that as many oral submissions as possible can be heard, we
ask you to try to keep your presentation to 10-15 minutes.
In addition to your oral submissions at this consultation, I would like to remind
everyone that written comments on the issues that are being considered here may be
submitted to the Commission by November 20, 1998. Like the transcript, those comments
will also form part of the record of the proceeding.
After everyone is finished with their presentations, we’ll take a short break,
after which representatives from MTS will be given an opportunity to respond to any
comments raised in the course of the session. MTS may also address any comments raised
during this consultation in the course of its final argument, which is to be filed by
November 24, 1998.
CHAIR:
Before I turn to the Secretary to call our first presenter, let me ask if there are any
preliminary matters to be addressed.
Thank you. I will now ask the Secretary to call the first presenter, please.
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Contact: Denis Carmel, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0N2
Tel.: (819)
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e-mail: denis.carmel@crtc.gc.ca
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