ARCHIVED—Project Summaries - Public Interest Advocacy Centre

1 Nicholas Street, Suite 1204
Ottawa, Ontario
K1N 7B7
Tel: 613-562-4002
FAX: 613-562-0007
E-mail: piac@web.ca
www.piac.ca

Bill C-19 Competition Act Amendments

$20,900

"The standards of competitive conduct in the marketplace and the enforcement of those standards are issues that are central to the operation of the marketplace. In an era where governments have been attempting to introduce market forces to replace regulation for many products and services, it is essential that the Commissioner possesses adequate remedies to ensure that competitive entry is barrier free and anti-competitive conduct can be disciplined."

PIAC's project involves the preparation of a consumer brief on the merits of Bill C-19, An Act to Amend the Competition Act, the presentation and dissemination of the brief to Parliament, policymakers, stakeholders, and the media with a view to advancing the interests of ordinary consumers in the policy questions posed by the new legislation. While the project will track the specific amendments proposed in the legislation, it will provide, in the context of the brief, a discussion of the principles that guide the consumer position on the subject areas of the amendments.

PIAC's project expected outcome would include the vigorous representation of the consumer interest in the amendments process, suggestions for further reform, if any, and an effort to correct the usual imbalance of influence concerning efforts to provide more effective remedies for anti-competitive conduct.

The following audiences will be targeted: print and broadcast media; appropriate federal and provincial government departments, bureaus, and offices; consumer and special interest NGOs and coalitions; industry associations and members, PIAC's individual and organization members; and the public at large.

Media releases, website postings, and interpersonal communications may be used and interviews may be conducted to keep the media informed about the project. PIAC will be proactively communicating with the media as a means to communicate the consumer brief to the public where required. PIAC's Web site will be utilized to assist in the communication process.

2. Copyright and Consumers Part II

$39,600

PIAC proposes to continue the copyright research it completed in 2002-03 under OCA funding, in which it produced an initial report, which looked at copyright from the consumer perspective. PIAC is also doing research over the 2004-05 periods on Peer-to-Peer Networks and consumers. .One of PIAC's findings in the 2003 report was that copyright in the digital era has very much become a consumer issue.

The methodology will involve analysis of any proposed legislation to amend the Copyright Act, any legislative committee reports and/or consultation reports that may be issued over medium-term issues, and analysis of the submissions of other consumer and public interest groups concerning the medium term copyright reform issues. It will include the analysis of any submissions of public interest and industry groups that would have an impact on consumers. The methodology will also involve consulting with public interest groups engaged in the copyright reform process.

PIAC will draw on the work on copyright reform, from a public interest perspective, that is being done by other public interest groups such as the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) and the submissions/research of other stakeholder groups where it is directly relevant to or impacts consumers.

The expected outcome would be more detailed consideration of medium-term copyright reform issues in terms of their effect on consumers, resulting in copyright changes that will do no harm to consumers.

PIAC will issue a media release to local, national and specialized media upon the report's completion and engage in any resulting media interviews in order to communicate the project findings as widely to the public as possible. Notice of the project and the full project report will also be placed PIAC's website.

3. Foreign Involvement in Air Transport in Canada

$33,100

Foreign involvement in Canadian air transport is currently strictly limited to 25% ownership of a Canadian airline and no cabotage (i.e. foreign airlines cannot operate a domestic network in Canada). Given economies of scale in the air transport industry and the limited size of the Canadian market, it may be desirable to remove these restrictions and integrate the Canadian and U.S. markets into a single continental market. However, such a course of action has risks, in particular a possible degradation of service to medium and small communities and making air transport policy more difficult to implement in future. In November 2004, the Minister of Transport formally requested the House of Commons Standing Committee on Transport (SCOT) to inquire into these and related issues.

PIAC's project will prepare submissions and oral testimony to be presented to SCOT, and to other governmental committees, such as the Senate Committee on Transport & Communications, that will reflect a consumer view-point on these issues. It will build on consultations with various consumer groups and experience in Canada and elsewhere with:

1. consolidation in network industries, and the resulting impact on relatively low-value customers;
2. impact of increased foreign presence on governmental ability to implement policy.

More specifically, the project will look at the impacts on consumers of airline consolidation in other countries, primarily the United States and also past experience in Canada. The project will also review the results of opening up other network industries, with a view to the differential impacts on various groups of consumers. This will be based on existing studies, and on interviews with consumer representatives and observers of the industry. Next, the project will examine the extent to which foreign ownership might affect the Canadian government's ability to implement policy, looking at previous instances in transportation, and also in other industries, such as pharmaceuticals.

Building on these analyses, the study will construct scenarios of consumer impacts of the various options before the SCOT. In turn, these will serve as the basis for submissions and presentations by PIAC to the SCOT. Consumer input will be sought to rank trade-offs between lower prices and stability and secured access to service.

Submissions will also be widely available, to government departments and airlines. Communications will be through oral presentations at meetings, circulation of submissions and other materials, and posting these on PIAC's website.

4. Smart Regulation III — Implementation (Joint project with Option Consommateurs (OC))

$57,700

"This project will continue PIAC's and OC's work in the federal government's Smart Regulation Initiative by providing consumer input into the next phase of the Imitative. With the assistance of the Contributions Program in 2003 and 2004 PIAC has provided consumer input through written and oral submissions to the process initiated by the External Advisory Committee on Smart Regulation (EACSR) to assist in the process of independent review of the design of the regulatory approach for Canada in the 21^st Century. OC has had extensive experience in the subject area and the executive director of OC has participated in the EACSR process as a member of the Committee."

The project is primarily focused on assisting the Smart Regulation Initiative in understanding the consumer interest both in evolving an appropriate regulatory framework and in determining the appropriate recipe in individual areas. This will involve use of existing organizational experience, literature analysis, consultation with other stakeholders and review of results in the regulation, operation and governance of important government services. For example, particular, PIAC's and OC's involvement with the regulation of important public services, both on the practical and policy making levels will inform the decisions as to the briefing efforts and documents produced for the purpose of deriving the overall policy framework and examination of key initiative components such as public participation and building capacity. As PIAC noted, the size and scope of the implementation phase of the Smart Regulation Initiative will demand that PIAC and OC prioritize issues for its participation. PIAC and OC will be guided by consultations with other consumer and public interest stakeholders in so doing. PIAC and OC will do a final report incorporating the description of what was done and the materials and submissions prepared to accomplish the project work.

The specific components of the work will include the following:

• Analysis of the report submitted by the Advisory Committee on Smart Regulation. PIAC and OC plan to analyse this report by identifying how smart regulation can help protect citizens effectively and what pitfalls should be avoided so that this movement benefits the public and not just the market alone.
• Research on foreign experiences. PIAC and OC will pay special attention to France and the United Kingdom. PIAC and OC will study the experience of the Better Regulation Task Force (BRTF) in the United Kingdom. The task force is an advisory committee that was created in 1997 and includes people from different walks of life. The committee makes recommendations for improving regulatory processes in the United Kingdom. Last January, PIAC and OC met with the BRTF secretariat and said Task Force would be forthcoming with information. PIAC and OC also plan to analyse the consultation process in France between the government, companies and consumer groups, namely the Conseil national de la consommation.
• Literature review on smart regulation in Canada with emphasis on the various methods of public consultation in order to identify the methods the government should use in implementing smart regulation. PIAC and OC will draw on a study conducted in 2002 by the Laboratoire d'éthique publique for the Commission de l'éthique de la science et de la technologie which gives a comprehensive profile of the different types of public consultation and identifies the strengths and weaknesses of each type. PIAC and OC will also consider two other publications that deal with the subject: one produced by Health Canada in 2000 and one produced by the Canadian Centre for Management Development. PIAC and OC also plan to consult any other pertinent studies and the studies carried out by Option consommateurs on consultation mechanisms. In addition, they will analyse the current federal regulatory policy, which includes a section on public consultation, with a view to making improvements in that regard.
• Interviews and meetings with representatives of consumer groups, Privy Council and the Better Regulation Task Force.

The principal communications of this project will be with the government decision makers associated with the implementation phase of this project and the other consumer and public interest stakeholders who will be consulted with a view to preparing the most comprehensive consumer brief to inform the participation. The communication plan will be evolved in tandem with the progress of the Initiative to maximize the clout of the project work without being disruptive to the integrity of the process of the Initiative. The results of the work in the form of the final report will be widely disseminated, including publication on the website.

5. Spyware — Looking out for the Consumers

$51,000

Spyware programs are presently running surreptitiously on perhaps a majority of Canadian consumers' personal computers used to connect to the Internet (small scale studies of the U.S. market show up to 80% of home computers have at least some spyware). These programs seriously undermine personal computer performance at a minimum and at worst expose consumers to fraudulent scams. Perhaps a majority of spyware data collection on consumers occurs without consent, violating the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and related privacy laws.

PIAC's study will look at the seemingly unstoppable phenomenon of spyware. The report will detail the major categories of spyware (including adware, delivery of viruses, trojan horses and worms (including keystroke loggers), "malware") and describe their functions and the risks for consumers.

This report will survey Canadians on their awareness of spyware. A major national research firm will be contracted to perform the public survey of spyware awareness. The report will include primary research including industry stakeholder interviews with both "spyware" makers and anti-spyware product marketers, general computer hardware and software marketers, with a goal not only of obtaining industry's view of the products but also to determine the scope of the industry. One question that will be probed in some detail will be the use of personal information "collected" from spyware and whether the collection, use or disclosure of this information violates computer users' rights under the PIPEDA and similar provincial legislation.

Secondary sources will be consulted, with a particular emphasis on Internet-based anti-spyware tools (some of which have been accused of themselves being spyware wolves in anti-spyware sheep's clothing) and Internet consumer education and self-help sites. This will be done to determine the resources available to consumers to battle spyware on their own and the likelihood of such self-protection. A literature review will also be conducted to look at any current writing or survey research on this issue.

PIAC will issue a media release to local, national and specialized media upon the report's completion and engage in any resulting media interviews in order to communicate the project findings as widely to the public as possible. Notice of the project and the full project report will also be placed PIAC's website.

6. The Consumer Interest in the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)

$29,650

The Canadian Commission for UNESCO (CCU) is attempting to organize the participation of Canadian civil society in the implementation process of the Plan of Action arising from the first Phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) held in Geneva Switzerland in December 2003. The Canadian Government participation in the Summit has been coordinated through Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) and Industry Canada.

The project proposes the presentation of a consumer brief on issues of concern in the Phase II process of WSIS including participation in any conference organized for that purpose and submission of a final report in time to inform Canadian participation in phase II of WSIS Summit in Tunis in November 2005.

The project will set out the consumer brief in WSIS Action Plan issues by isolating and summarizing consumer views in the key areas chosen. The methodology is in keeping with the task of informing Canadian representation at WSIS and the resources available. The methodology will include a literature review, contact with key stakeholders, review of contributions from other participants in the public consultation and monitoring of international developments associated with WSIS.

The principal audience for the results of this project is the Canadian participants in the WSIS process in Tunis and the participants in the WSIS as a whole. The communications strategy adopted would best convey the consumer view to those participants. Notice of the project and the final project report will also be placed PIAC's website.

7. The consumer interest in VoIP

$56,000

"Recent CRTC hearings on Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) raised several consumer issues. First, VoIP, while promising lower cost "long-distance" may do so at a cost to the maintenance of the public switched telephone network (PSTN). Funding formulas for high cost areas financed by the PSTN may no longer be sustainable if VoIP is permitted to be exempted from the cost-sharing regime. Second, VoIP has certain public safety limitations, notably lack of fully functioning emergency 911 service, but also a lack of self-powering during blackouts. Third, VoIP raises new privacy concerns, including the unavailability of certain privacy services mandated by the CRTC for all residential subscribers (for example, per call number display blocking), and more ominously, requests by police and national security forces for a "lawful access" surveillance facility to be built into the system."

PIAC's study will look at the recent "disruptive technology" of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and its possible effect upon consumers and how it threatens to change the entire delivery system for voice communications. The report will examine the migration of residential telephone service from circuit-switched service to new VoIP services and the risks and benefits for consumers.

This report will survey consumers to determine their attitudes to VoIP, and in particular, if they would switch to VoIP service to replace their "landline" telephone or only use VoIP as a "second line". The report also will view VoIP from the viewpoint of telephone subscribers in areas without, or who are unable to afford, broadband Internet access, which is a VoIP prerequisite.

More specifically, the study will involve mainly primary and secondary research to gather information on the effect of VoIP on consumer telecommunications issues such as universal access, caller privacy, 911 service, cost and service quality issues, and especially its effect on vulnerable consumers, including those without ready broadband access to the Internet. A major national research firm will be contracted to perform the public survey of VoIP awareness and attitudes to VoIP. Additional information will be gathered through document requests, industry stakeholder interviews, interviews with consumers who use the products, direct testing of VoIP products (this has been done to some extent by PIAC already) the Internet websites of VoIP providers and telephone inquiries. A literature review will also be conducted to look at any current writing or survey research on this issue.

PIAC will issue a media release to local, national and specialized media upon the report's completion and engage in any resulting media interviews in order to communicate the project findings as widely to the public as possible. Notice of the project and the full project report will also be placed PIAC's website.

8. The Identity Theft Industry — Good for Consumers?

$41,000

This study will look at the growing industry devoted to combatting identity theft, while examining industry-led innovations such as ID theft insurance, credit report monitoring services, anti-ID theft technological measures. The study will evaluate the claims for such anti-ID theft services to determine if they offer real protection and real value to consumers.

The report will include primary research including wide industry stakeholder interviews, with a goal not only of obtaining industry's view of the products but also to determine the scope and offerings of the industry. Consumer users of the products will also be interviewed for satisfaction with the products and views on the effectiveness and value of the services. Secondary sources, such as, Internet websites of service providers and telephone inquiries, literature reviews conducted from any current writings or surveys done on this issue, will be consulted to round out the discussion on this proposed solution to the identity theft problem and for background on the identity theft problem in general.

More specifically, the study will involve mainly primary and secondary research to gather information on the issue of identity theft services, their effectiveness and the effect on consumers, including consumer privacy. The information will be gathered through document requests, industry stakeholder interviews, consumers who use the products, the Internet websites of service providers and telephone inquiries. A literature review will also be conducted to look at any current writing or survey research on this issue.

PIAC will issue a media release to local, national and specialized media upon the report's completion and engage in any resulting media interviews in order to communicate the project findings as widely to the public as possible. Notice of the project and the full project report will also be placed PIAC's website.

9. Voluntary Codes and Consumer Protection in the Insurance Industry

$44,600

Recent revelations in the United States and Canada about the payment of contingent commissions by insurers to insurance brokers over and above regular sales commissions, which may have the effect of inflating insurance premiums, has also raised concerns about potential conflict of interest by brokers in terms of the insurance company and the consumer. In response, the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC), the national trade association for companies that provide property and casualty insurance to Canadian consumers and businesses, has recently published a Code of Consumer Rights and Responsibilities and a statement of Industry Commitment to Website Consumer Disclosure.

PIAC proposes to undertake research to assess the adequacy of existing regulatory frameworks governing the insurance industry in terns if consumer protection.

The methodology will involve analysis of the existing regulatory regime at the provincial and federal level, including the voluntary codes that have been put in place by the industry. How do the existing regulatory regime and the recently implemented voluntary codes promote the interests of consumers who purchase insurance? The research will also involve a brief survey of Canadians to assess their awareness of the existence of the Code and its purpose.

More specifically, the research methodology would involve some primary research in the form of one or two questions added on to a national survey of Canadians. It would also involve secondary research in the form of analysis of existing legislation and voluntary codes of practice. The research would also look at corresponding practices in other sectors to see if there is any model or instruction to be applied to the industry sector.

PIAC will issue a media release to local, national and specialized media upon the report's completion and engage in any resulting media interviews in order to communicate the project findings as widely to the public as possible. Notice of the project and the full project report will also be placed PIAC's website.

10. Where Should the Green Choices be Made?

$41,800

"In North America, and in most of the developed world, governments, regulators and utilities are actively seeking solutions that would put in place programs that produce more efficient energy consumption, and help the nation meet global environmental goals. This is particularly evident in the ongoing examination and restructuring of North American electricity markets, where industry and policy makers have undertaken efforts to decrease use by way of demand side management conservation programs and to encourage the consumption of electricity generated from renewable energy sources. These efforts, in general terms, have consisted of two approaches: one which attempts to provide incentives for consumer choice through education and financial incentives and another which mandates the content of any retail offering or conditions for the delivery of the commodity. While the merits of selecting a particular option of either customer choice or prescriptive mandate may be self evident in many circumstances, particularly those that involve health and safety, it is less clear in many circumstances of service delivery."

PIAC proposes to study the key objective of increasing the percentage of electricity consumed from renewable energy sources by examining the approaches that have used a customer choice model to help achieve this objective, and those jurisdictions that have mandated the use of a certain percentage of electricity from renewable energy. This project will address the issue of the best approach to enabling the take-up of wise energy choices by consumers. By using the well accepted objective of increasing reliance on renewable energy sources, the study will examine the effectiveness of state and market efforts to urge consumers to buy "green" when they make decisions about their energy supplier and their consumption.

The key elements of the research methodology will involve the selection of the jurisdictions and the approaches to be used for comparative purposes together with the establishment of an appropriate set of criteria to evaluate them. PIAC intends to do the research and consultation to establish it is on the right track with respect to these key choices in methodology.

Media releases, website postings, and interpersonal communications may be used and interviews may be conducted to keep the media informed about the project. PIAC will be proactively communicating with the media as a means to communicate the project findings to the public. Notice of the project and its results will also be made on PIAC's growing Web site, which is accessible to all stakeholders via the Internet.