People in Canada currently pay some of the highest prices in the world for home Internet and cell phone data plans.1 Our expensive bills are a burden on our family finances, and the reason why many people lack sufficient connectivity at home. It’s a severe, urgent, and long-standing problem — made worse by the trail of broken vows our government has left since the 2019 federal election.
In 2019, our government made a promise to lower our bills — a promise they swiftly broke. Under the government’s watch, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) not only blocked the introduction of low-cost cell phone providers to Canada, but also issued a decision on Internet wholesale rates that directly led to price hikes.2,3 And when Rogers announced plans to buy out Shaw, signalling an even less competitive and more expensive future for connectivity in Canada, the government chose to remain silent rather than commit to blocking the sale.
By 2021, affordable connectivity appeared to be the last thing on the Trudeau government’s mind. During the federal election, the party dropped almost all references to telecom affordability in their platform.4
Now, as our government kicks off with a new mandate, it seems as though they want us to forget they ever promised to lower our bills in the first place. That puts us on a collision course for 2022, barreling towards even worse price hikes to come.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. This can be the year we put a stop to our sky-high Internet and cell phone prices, and hold our government accountable.
The government thinks it can sweep its past promises of lower telecom bills under the rug. That’s why we need to deliver a wake-up call that reminds them just how many people care about affordable connectivity. Email Trudeau and Cabinet NOW: bring down our Internet and cell phone bills to match up with other countries, starting with reversing the CRTC’s Internet price hikes!