ARCHIVED - Telecom Commission Letter - 8663-C12-200614439

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Letter

Ottawa, 26 September 2007

Our File: 8663-C12-200614439

Delivered by e-mail

To:   Distribution List - Interested Parties, Review of regulatory framework for wholesale services and definition of essential service, Telecom Public Notice CRTC 2006-14, 9 November 2006

Re: Organization and conduct of the oral hearing

The Commission is scheduled to hold an oral hearing in connection with the above-noted proceeding commencing on Tuesday, 9 October 2007 at the Conference Centre, Phase IV, Outaouais Room, 140 Promenade du Portage, Gatineau, Quebec.

The purpose of this letter is to provide information to the parties on a variety of matters relating to the organization and conduct of the oral hearing.

Sitting schedule

The Commission intends to begin the hearing at 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday, 9 October 2007, and to sit Monday through Friday during the course of the hearing, with a normal sitting day of 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.   However, on Tuesday, 16 October, 2007, the hearing will commence at 8:00 a.m. and conclude at 3:30 pm . The Commission notes that it intends the cross-examination phase of the hearing to conclude no later than Wednesday, 17 October 2007.

The Commission notes that the parties' preliminary estimates for the time required for cross-examination far exceed the seven days scheduled for this hearing.   Parties are expected to be efficient and focussed in their cross-examination in order for the hearing to conclude within the time noted above.   If absolutely necessary, and despite the best efforts of parties to be efficient and focussed in their cross-examination, the Commission may sit for additional time.   In this regard, the Commission has reserved Friday, 26 October, Monday, 29 October, and Tuesday, 30 October 2007 (with a further additional possibility of Saturday 27 October 2007) for resumption of the hearing.

The Commission notes that this hearing will proceed immediately with the testimony offered by the various interested parties.  

ORAL HEARING

Order of witnesses to be presented

The following parties have advised the Commission of their intention to make one or more witnesses available for cross-examination. In light of the amount of time estimated for cross-examination by the parties, the Commission is permitting only one panel per party.   The Commission has determined that the parties should present their witnesses in the following order:

  • The Competition Bureau
  • Bell Aliant Regional Communications, Limited Partnership, Bell Canada , Saskatchewan Telecommunications, and Télébec, Société en commandite (Business/Regulatory and Expert Panel)
  • Rogers Communications Inc.
  • Cogeco Cable Inc.
  • Quebecor Media Inc.
  • Shaw Communications Inc.
  • TELUS Communications Company (Policy/Business and Expert Panel)
  • MTS Allstream Inc. (Business/Regulatory and Expert Panel)
  • Primus Telecommunications Canada Inc. and Globility Communications Inc. (Business/Regulatory and Expert Panel)
  • The Public Interest Advocacy Centre
  • Cybersurf Corp.
  • Yak Communications (Canada) Corp.
  • Xittel Telecommunications Inc. and Quebec Coalition of Internet Service Providers

The Commission has been informed that certain witnesses are not available at all times. In preparing the above order of witnesses to be presented, the Commission has attempted to accommodate all parties' requests regarding the availability of witnesses.   The Commission will, to the extent possible, adjust the above schedule as necessary.

Order of cross-examination

Several parties have indicated that they wish to cross-examine one or more witnesses or panels of witnesses. The Commission has decided that parties wishing to cross-examine witnesses will proceed in the order set out in Attachment 1 to this letter. Any party who wishes to conduct cross-examination who is not on this list is to notify the Commission of its intention to do so no later than Tuesday, 2 October 2007.

The Commission notes that, in the case of each witness panel, questions from the Commission and from Commission counsel will follow cross-examination by the parties.

Final oral argument

In a letter dated 21 August 2007, the Commission requested that parties state whether they wish to present oral final argument (in addition to written final argument).   Several parties requested to present oral final argument in addition to written final argument.

In light of the sitting schedule noted above, the Commission will hear final oral argument on Friday, 9 November 2007, at the Conference Centre, Phase IV, Outaouais Room, 140 Promenade du Portage, Gatineau, Quebec, with a maximum time allowed of 30 minutes per party.   Parties wishing to present final oral argument should proceed in the order of appearance set out above (one presentation per party).  

Written Argument

As contemplated in Public Notice 2006-14-3, in addition to, or instead of, presenting final oral argument, parties may file written argument by serving a copy on all parties, by Friday, 9 November 2007.

Parties are reminded that by letter dated 13 September 2007 the Commission varied the process in order to provide for the following:

  • All parties may file argument with respect to the Osborne report and reply argument on all other issues, with the Commission, limited to 30 pages with an executive summary no longer than seven pages in length, serving a copy on all other parties, by  30 November 2007.
  • All parties may file reply argument with respect to other parties' arguments on the Osborne report, with the Commission, limited to 15 pages with an executive summary no longer than three pages in length, serving a copy on all other parties, by 7 December 2007.

Opening statements and the use of audio-visual presentations

The Commission will not permit opening oral statements by any party or their witnesses, whether at the commencement or during the course of the oral hearing and will not permit the use by any party or their witnesses of any audio-visual presentation.   However, parties are allowed to file a point-form written opening statement of no more than 5 pages in length by Tuesday, 2 October 2007, serving a copy on all interested parties.

Responsibilities of the parties

Parties are reminded that it is their responsibility to monitor the progress and content of the hearing in order, among other things, to ensure that they are aware of any documents that may have been filed in their absence, any changes to the order of presentation of witnesses, and/or any rulings made by the Commission. There will be an audio feed of the oral hearing, available on the Commission's website at www.crtc.gc.ca.

Similarly, parties should keep themselves informed of the progress of the cross-examinations, so that they can be ready with their own cross-examination at the appropriate time.   In the case of parties that have filed evidence, parties must ensure that their witnesses are available to be called to testify in accordance with the order established by the Commission. Parties should also be aware of the cross-examination that precedes their own, in order to eliminate duplication of matters dealt with by earlier parties.

Prior to and during the oral hearing, parties should provide the Hearing Secretary with their best estimates of the amount of time they believe they require for cross-examination of each witness or panel of witnesses and also advise the Hearing Secretary as soon as possible of any changes to those time estimates.   Parties should also inform the Hearing Secretary as soon as possible if they do not intend, or no longer intend, to cross-examine a witness or panel of witnesses. This will assist the Commission and all parties in the scheduling of witnesses and the cross-examinations and will help avoid situations where a witness or witnesses are brought to the oral hearing when no parties have questions for them.  

Record of appearance

In order to assist the Commission, parties are asked to submit a record of appearance, including the name of their Legal Counsel/Representative, and a telephone number and email address where their Counsel/Representative can be contacted immediately preceding and during the public hearing.   Parties are requested to provide this information to the Hearing Secretary via e-mail to Marielle Giroux-Girard ( marielle.giroux-girard@crtc.gc.ca ) by Tuesday, 2 October 2007. This will enable the Hearing Secretary to contact parties, if necessary, to obtain information or to inform them of matters relating to the hearing. Copies of the Record of Appearance may be obtained from the Hearing Secretary on Tuesday, 9 October 2007.

Examination-in-chief

Parties are reminded that traditional examination-in-chief is not permitted at public hearings conducted by the Commission.   Rather, in accordance with section 21 of the CRTC Telecommunications Rules of Procedure, a party calling a witness should restrict its examination to the following:

  • whether the evidence was prepared by or under the supervision of the witness;
  • whether the evidence filed contains any errors or requires any routine updates; and  
  • the qualifications of the witness.

The introduction of witnesses by parties should be brief, with little or no reading from witnesses' curricula vitae.

Curricula vitae of witnesses

Curricula vitae of witnesses to be presented by parties are to be filed with the Commission and copied on all parties no later than Tuesday, 2 October 2007.

Procedure for introduction of exhibits

The Commission expects parties to introduce exhibits using the expedited procedure which was adopted in the proceeding leading to Review of regulatory framework, Telecom Decision CRTC 94-19, dated 16 September 1994.  For convenience, this procedure is reproduced below:

(a)   Responses to undertakings

  • Parties must provide copies of their responses to undertakings to both the Hearing Secretary and to other parties in advance of them being introduced as exhibits. Wherever possible, oral or written responses to undertakings should include a reference to the transcript page where the undertaking was given, identifying both the witness giving the undertaking and the party to whom the undertaking was given.

  • Before circulating these documents, parties should confirm with the Hearing Secretary the number assigned to the most recent exhibit. Parties themselves should then number the responses to undertakings accordingly, prior to distribution.

  • The Hearing Secretary will then enter the responses to undertakings as exhibits at an appropriate time by briefly identifying the party in question and noting the exhibit numbers assigned to various responses to undertakings.

(b)   Documents other than responses to undertakings

  • Unless there is sufficient reason for not doing so, parties should provide the Hearing Secretary and the other parties with copies of the proposed exhibits in advance. To facilitate recognition of a particular document, parties should ensure that exhibits have titles.

  • During the cross-examination of a witness or panel of witnesses by a party, the Hearing Secretary will track the documents put to the witness or panel of witnesses, and will assign numbers accordingly.

  • Following a party's completion of the cross-examination of the witness(es), the Hearing Secretary will enter as exhibits the documents that were in fact put to the witness(es) by that party. This will be done orally.

Copies of documents filed

All parties are reminded that, with respect to all documents filed at the oral hearing (such as exhibits, proposed exhibits or responses to undertakings), 20 copies must be provided to the Hearing Secretary for the Commission's use.

At the same time, a copy of all such documents must be served on all other parties present at the oral hearing on the date the document is filed.

Reference in cross-examination to pre-filed materials

The Commission notes that the record of the present proceeding is very voluminous.   Accordingly, in addition to the foregoing, in order to speed cross-examination and to assist the Commission and counsel to locate pre-filed documents that will be referred to during cross-examination, parties are requested to provide 30 copies of the specifically and directly relevant pages of the pre-filed documents to the Hearing Secretary at the beginning of their cross-examination of the various witness panels.   The Hearing Secretary will make copies of these documents available to parties as needed.

Assistance to parties

In order to ensure that the oral hearing may be conducted smoothly and efficiently, Commission counsel (Peter McCallum and Amy Hanley, Tel: (819) 953-2197 or (819) 953-2196, respectively) will be available, both prior to and during the hearing, to assist counsel or other representatives of the parties with regard to procedural matters and the practices and procedures of the Commission.

Sincerely,

Original signed by

Robert A. Morin
Secretary General

Attachment

Distribution List - Interested Parties

Attachment 1 

ORDER OF CROSS-EXAMINATION OF WITNESSES

  1. The Competition Bureau

  2. Bell Aliant Regional Communications, Limited Partnership, Bell Canada, Saskatchewan Telecommunications and Télébec, Société en commandite (the Companies)

  3. Rogers Communications Inc.

  4. Shaw Communications Inc.

  5. TELUS Communications Company

  6. MTS Allstream Inc.

  7. Primus Telecommunications Canada Inc. and Globility Communications Corporation
  8. The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC)

  9. Cybersurf Corp.

  10. Xittel Telecommunications Inc. and Quebec Coalition of Internet Service Providers
Date Modified: 2007-09-26
Date modified: