CRTC chair faces call to recuse himself amid renewed questions about bias

Ian Scott, the chair of Canada’s telecom regulator, is facing renewed questions about his objectivity after he recently defended taking a meeting at a bar with a senior executive from Bell.

The Competitive Network Operators of Canada, a lobby group for smaller internet service providers, filed an application Thursday afternoon with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission calling for Scott to recuse himself – or be removed by the commission – from files related to internet competition .

It’s the latest in a series of official challenges to both Scott’s authority and the CRTC’s decision-making stemming from a May 2021 ruling on the wholesale prices that small ISPs pay to large players such as Bell and Rogers for access to their networks.

The small players resell that service to their own retail customers and the decision last year reversed an earlier ruling that granted the independent ISPs lower wholesale rates. They now say their business model and ability to charge customers lower prices is under threat.

Through various attempts to overturn the ruling, independent ISPs, which include players such as TekSavvy and CNOC member Distributel, have made Scott’s own conduct a central part of their arguments, insisting that the appearance of impartiality is central to his role.

CNOC and TekSavvy separately filed petitions asking the federal cabinet to overturn the ruling, and the Federal Court of Appeal has said it will hear a case launched by TekSavvy.

“This is not personal. This is about the professional integrity of a very important institution, ”Geoff White, executive director and general counsel of CNOC, said in an interview before filing the application. The lobby group is asking Scott to step aside from decisions that relate to small ISPs until after the Federal Court of Appeal rules on the case.

In an exclusive interview published this week, Scott told the Star that “nothing inappropriate was done” in relation to his December 2019 meeting at an Ottawa pub with Mirko Bibic, who is now the CEO of Bell, Canada’s biggest communications company.

“I went for a beer with someone I have known for many years,” Scott said, adding that the meeting initially had nothing to do with business. Before joining the CRTC as chair in 2017, Scott had a long career in the telecom industry, including government relations roles at satellite operator Telesat and wireless and home internet company Telus.

When the conversation turned to a broadcasting issue, Scott said, Bibic recorded the meeting in the federal lobbyist registry, as required by rules about how government officials interact with the corporate representatives.

“At no time did I have a discussion with Bell about a file I have in front of us,” Scott said in the interview, the first time he has publicly addressed the meeting, which the Star first reported in June 2021. “No rule was ever broken. ”

But CNOC says the meeting raises at least the appearance of bias and wants the CRTC to keep the chair away from key files that could affect internet prices.

White called it “stunning” that the chair of the CRTC was “having private conversations with the CEO of the most powerful telecommunications company” at a point in time when the original ruling on wholesale rates was under appeal.

“And then it’s the fact that he seems to assert that it was not a problem,” White added. “The courts have been very clear that such conduct, even the appearance of bias is not permissible.”

CNOC also points to a comment Scott made at a conference last year, when he said he has a “personal preference” for competition that is based on companies building their own networks. It can be prohibitively expensive to enter the telecom business and that model is seen by many as more favorable to large, incumbent operators.

Representatives for the CRTC and Departments of Canadian Heritage and Innovation, Science and Economic Development were not immediately available for comment Thursday afternoon.

The federal cabinet must respond to the petitions filed by CNOC and TekSavvy by May 27, one year from the date of the disputed CRTC ruling.

The CRTC has previously told the Star that the commission made an independent decision based on a public record on the file and that as chair, Scott is one of only nine commissioners who made the call.

There are no firm deadlines for the CRTC to respond to the type of application CNOC filed on Thursday.