Our file: 8695-C12-19/02

Ottawa, 7 August 2002

BY TELECOPIER

Telecom Public Notice CRTC 2002-1 Interested Parties

Subject: Northwestel Inc. - Initial annual review of supplemental funding, Telecom Public Notice CRTC 2002-1 - Resumption of Proceeding

By letter dated 29 July 2002, pursuant to a Commission staff letter dated 30 May 2002, Northwestel Inc. (Northwestel) notified the Commission and all interested parties that, as of 24 July 2002, a settlement had been reached in the work stoppage at the company. Northwestel also proposed revised milestones for the remainder of the process.

On 31 July 2002, the Yukon Government (YTG) wrote that, while it found the approach taken by Northwestel to the proposed revised milestones to be generally acceptable, YTG requested one modification, namely a provision for interested parties to put further interrogatories. YTG submitted that fairness and the public interest required this given that no information on the prospective labour situation was made available prior to the deadline for filing interrogatories and close to four months have elapsed since those interrogatories were filed. YTG proposed that interested parties be given until 9 August 2002 to put further interrogatories.

On 2 August 2002, Northwestel commented on YTG's proposal. It submitted that the request for additional interrogatories should be denied, adding that issues pertaining to the labour situation are not relevant to the proceeding and that it does not anticipate any material financial impacts related to the work stoppage. Northwestel submitted that there are a number of urgent matters before the Commission in this proceeding and that additional interrogatories would require adjusting the milestones it had proposed. Northwestel concluded by stating that it is important that the proceeding be no longer than strictly necessary and that it continue to focus on the relevant issues.

In the letter dated 30 May 2002 deferring the proceeding due to the work stoppage, Commission staff requested the company to indicate, after work resumed, when it would be able to provide updates/revisions to its submission and initial interrogatories responses dated 12 April 2002, if required. The Commission staff notes that Northwestel stated that it does not anticipate any material financial impacts related to the work stoppage. However, in light of the original request noted above, Commission staff requests that the company indicate the impacts due to the work stoppage in the following categories: (1) Service Improvement Plan (SIP) expenditures and scheduling; (2) Quality of Service (Q of S); and (3) Financial, including the impact on the estimated Supplementary Funding Requirement amount for 2002. If the company does not expect the work stoppage to cause any impact in these categories, the company is requested to provide the underlying rationale for its views. If an increase is required for the Supplementary Funding Requirement, then the company is requested to provide full supporting justification. The company is requested to provide this information at the same time as its responses to the interrogatories, as noted below.

Commission staff has reviewed the YTG submission and Northwestel's response to it and is of the view, in light of the information requested above, that it is not necessary to provide for an opportunity for YTG to ask further interrogatories at this time.

Commission staff finds that Northwestel's proposed milestones are, in general, reasonable; however, we have reinstated the original three-week interval for item 3 below, and have adjusted subsequent dates in accordance with the intervals proposed by the company in its 28 July 2002 letter. Accordingly, the date for the filing of the company's responses to interrogatories has been revised to 26 August 2002, as proposed by the company. The remaining milestones set out in Public Notice 2002-1 (as previously modified by the 16 May 2002 letter from Commission staff) are modified as set out in bold below:

1. Requests by interested parties for further responses to their interrogatories, specifying in each case why a further response is both relevant and necessary, and requests for public disclosure of information for which confidentiality has been claimed, setting out in each case the reasons for disclosure, must be filed with the Commission and served on all interested parties, by 3 September 2002 (paragraph 26 of Public Notice 2002-1).
   
2. Written responses to requests for further responses to interrogatories and for public disclosure must be filed with the Commission and served on all interested parties, by 6 September 2002 (paragraph 27 of Public Notice 2002-1).
   
3. A determination with respect to requests for further information and for public disclosure will be disposed of as soon as possible. Any information to be provided pursuant to that determination must be filed with the Commission and served on all interested parties, by 27 September 2002 (paragraph 28 of Public Notice 2002-1).
   
4. Any participant who wishes merely to file written comments, without receiving copies of the various submissions, may do so by writing to the Commission, at the address noted in paragraph 19 of Public Notice 2002-1, by 4 October 2002 (paragraph 21 of Public Notice 2002-1).
   
5. Northwestel and interested parties may file arguments with the Commission on any matters within the scope of this proceeding, serving copies on all other parties, by 4 October 2002 (paragraph 29 of Public Notice 2002-1).
   
6. All parties may file reply argument with the Commission, serving a copy on all other parties, by 11 October 2002 (paragraph 30 of Public Notice 2002-1).

Where a document is to be filed or served by a specific date, the document must be actually received, not merely sent, by that date.

Yours sincerely,

Scott Hutton
Director
Efficiency and Expenditure Analysis, Telecommunications
(819) 997-4573

c.c.: Hugh Thompson, CRTC (819) 953-6081