Liberals Have Failed Canadians by Protecting Big Telco Profits, Say NDP

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On Wednesday, Rogers, Telus, Bell and other telecoms agreed to sign a network safety plan, to assist each other in the event of major outages, such as the devastating Rogers nationwide outage in July.

Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne said yesterday, “the Rogers outage of July 8 was unacceptable, and we must do everything possible to ensure something similar does not happen again in the future, as I said at the time.” He added, “Canadians deserve strong, reliable, and affordable telecommunications networks.”

Now, this agreement between telecoms sounds like fairies and rainbows, but it’s not good enough for the federal New Democratic Party (NDP).

The NDP released a statement on Thursday, slamming Justin Trudeau’s Liberals for failing to take on big telecoms, leaving Canadians behind.

“Despite paying some of the highest rates in the world for cellphone services, many Canadians and businesses were left without any access to cell service during a recent Rogers outage, including the ability to call 9-11 during life-threatening emergencies,” said NDP Critic for Innovation, Science and Industry Brian Masse, in a statement.

“Canadians deserve better. Yesterday’s announcement from Minister Champagne isn’t enough to assure Canadians and does nothing to lower cell service costs,” added Masse.

According to Masse, he said “If the Liberals wanted to help Canadians, they would hold telecom company executives accountable and demand that they put Canadians’ public safety first. Instead, the Liberals continue to protect the profits of giant telecom companies and refuse to end the monopoly that enables high prices and poor service.”

Masse pointed out, “this government only emboldens telecom companies and their monopolistic practices by keeping the door open to the Rogers-Shaw merger.”

“New Democrats will fight to end the telecom monopolies’ outrageous behaviour and ensure Canadians have more affordable services that they can count on,” concluded Masse.

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