April 8, 2019
The federal government Ministry of Industry released a draft of the new 2019 Policy Direction to the CRTC.
It was a senior policy analyst from the Ministry who reached out to two members of DWCC to let us know of the publication of the draft policy and encouraged us to contribute our viewpoints.
The original Draft is here: https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/smt-gst.nsf/eng/sf11484.html
It was missing the word “accessibility,” so DWCC took steps to bring attention to this fact.
DWCC submitted its feedback here: https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/smt-gst.nsf/vwapj/PD2019-DWCC-comments.pdf/$FILE/PD2019-DWCC-comments.pdf
The resulting policy had the following wording:
” iv. enhance and protect the rights of consumers in their relationships with telecommunications service providers, including rights related to accessibility, …
vi. enable innovation in telecommunications services, including new technologies and differentiated service offerings, and..”
The published new 2019 Policy Direction to the CRTC is available here: https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/smt-gst.nsf/eng/sf11524.html
As a result, the new wording that includes “accessibility” has made a huge impact on CRTC’s decision-making positions with public regulatory policy processes, ensuring there is accessibility included.
