TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Canada: Telecommunications Declaration from Consumer Groups

Canada: Telecommunications Declaration from Consumer Groups

Nigel Allen (ndallen@interlog.com)
Thu, 12 Jan 2006 14:45:23 -0500

The following press release was issued by the Public Interest
Advocacy Centre in Ottawa.

I do not work for PIAC, but I thought that the press release might be
of interest to TELECOM Digest's readers. PIAC's web site at
http://www.piac.ca/ contains a lot of information about
telecommunications and other regulated industries in Canada.

OTTAWA, Jan. 12 /CNW/ - Thirty-three national organizations today
released a two-page declaration calling on the Federal government
to preserve and promote basic telecommunications goals.

"Telecommunications performs an essential role in the maintenance of
Canada's identity, sovereignty, social cohesion and economic health,"
thedeclaration reads.

The Declaration identifies specific principles and protections in the
Telecommunications Act to be defended and promoted by the government,
including consumer protection and improved access for rural
communities and persons with disabilities.

"Regulating the telecommunications industry in Canada is essential to
the economic health of many communities including rural communities
which companies may feel are too expensive to service and to lower
income people who can't afford access," says Michael Janigan,
Executive Director of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC).

"The Declaration affirms grassroots support for these principles -
which are under direct attack by large telecommunications companies.
The Declaration is a direct response to the government's
Telecommunications Policy Review presently underway," adds John
Lawford, Counsel for PIAC. "Canadians want to defend and strengthen
the public interest in telecommunications, not weaken it." The
Declaration has been submitted to Hon. David Emerson, Minister of
Industry and to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications
Commission (CRTC).

A pdf copy of the Declaration is at:

http://www.piac.ca/TPRP_Declaration_Signed.pdf

For further information: John Lawford, Counsel, Public Interest
Advocacy Centre, (613) 562-4002 x25; Michael Janigan, Executive
Director and General Counsel, Public Interest Advocacy Centre, (613)
562-4002 x26

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