Conservatives blasted for 'grandstanding' on text message fees

The Liberals are blasting the government for "grandstanding" on the new incoming text messaging charges proposed by Bell Canada Inc. and Telus Corp., saying Industry Minister Jim Prentice's criticism of the companies is half-baked and premature.

"Prentice has acted on this more like he was Opposition than government," Liberal Opposition critic Scott Brison told CBC News. "This government loves to grandstand on these types of populist issues."

Bell and Telus ignited a hailstorm of criticism from cellphone subscribers last Tuesday when they simultaneously announced that customers on pay-as-you-go plans who do not have text plans would be billed 15 cents for every incoming message, beginning in August.

NDP Leader Jack Layton started an online petition on Thursday calling on Bell and Telus to cancel the charges. The petition was followed the same day by a statement from Prentice condemning the phone companies' move.

"While I have no desire to interfere with the day-to-day business decisions of two private companies, I do have a duty as minister of industry to protect the interests of the consuming public when necessary," Prentice said in a statement. "I believe this was a poorly thought out decision."

Prentice called on Bell and Telus's chief executive officers, George Cope and Darren Entwistle, to meet with him before Aug. 8 — the date Bell had scheduled to implement its new charges — and explain themselves (Telus plans to begin charging on Aug. 24). The companies had said they were instituting the charges because the increase in the number of text messages flowing across their networks has resulted in higher costs.

Brison said Prentice should have met with the companies before making public statements condemning them. He likened Prentice's comments to criticisms made by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty in March in regards to banks and their automated teller machine fees.

"What impact has Flaherty's grandstanding on bank service charges had on bank service charges? The answer is absolutely none," Brison said. "I expect that Prentice's grandstanding on text messaging charges is going to have the same impact."

The Liberals plan to "monitor the situation" and will meet with Bell and Telus to discuss the matter, Brison said. Liberal consumer affairs critic Dan McTeague, however, told the Winnipeg Sun last week that the cellphone companies' moves "cries out for greater oversight."

"We have arguably the highest cellphone prices in the world," he said.

Promise of lower prices not being met

Brison said Prentice is in a difficult position because he promised consumers lower prices and greater competition back in November when he set the rules on a government auction of cellphone airwaves, currently in its last days. Prentice encouraged new entrants to get into the market by setting aside 40 per cent of the airwaves being sold.

Bell and Telus raising their messaging prices and manoeuvring customers onto higher-priced text plans runs counter to those promises, he said.

"He's put in a position where the result of the auction doesn't reflect what he promised it would."

Deirdra McCracken, Prentice's spokesperson, fired back through an e-mail to CBCNews.ca and asked what Brison has against consumers.

"He was unhappy with the increased choice for consumers that the spectrum auction set-aside would allow, he was unhappy with the copyright bill that balanced the rights of consumers and creators, and now he's unhappy that the government wants to ensure consumers aren't being overcharged for text messages," she said. "Our government is putting consumers first, whereas Brison and the tax-and-spend Liberals are only interested in their tax on everything."

The NDP's petition, meanwhile, was up to 24,000 signatures as of Tuesday morning, while a related protest group on social networking site Facebook had more than 28,000 members.

Many petitioners have accused Bell and Telus of collusion, given that both moved to introduce the new charges at the same time.

A spokesman for Bell disputed that claim and said the company had notified customers back in early June that it would start charging for incoming messages. Telus did not reply to a request for comment.

Text messaging fees have also caused a commotion across the ocean, where European Union Telecoms commissioner Viviane Reding on Tuesday said she would move to cap such charges in October. Europeans travelling abroad are charged between 29 euro cents and 80 euro cents per message, a fee Reding said should be between 11 and 15 euro cents.