Canada roaming dispute: CRTC questions blacked-out headings

Canada’s Roaming Dispute Redacted Even the Headings

Why it matters

CRTC staff wants to know why the public record hides the existence of negotiations, arbitration and agreements in a Saskatchewan wholesale roaming fight. The prices can stay private; the outline of the case is another matter.

Daniel Kade2 November 2026 at 06:15 UTCReading Time 2 minLast update: 2 November 2026

CRTC staff is testing whether the existence and outcome of roaming processes should be public while commercial rates remain protected.

Summary

CRTC staff has asked whether basic facts in the Videotron–SaskTel roaming case belong in the public record.
The regulator found some information blacked out in one filing and public in another; it has not yet ordered disclosure.

A fight about access to a mobile network has acquired a smaller, stranger fight: whether readers may see the headings of the paperwork. In an October 30 staff letter, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission listed ordinary introductory text and section headers among material that may have been over-redacted. Staff also found the same information hidden in some filings and visible in others.

The underlying case began on June 11, when Quebecor, acting for Videotron, alleged that SaskTel gave undue preference and unjust discrimination in wholesale roaming. Videotron asked the CRTC to end forbearance in Saskatchewan, require proposed tariffs and impose a final-offer arbitration condition. Those are the applicant’s claims and requested remedies. The October letter decides none of them. Staff says it will settle confidentiality first, then the separate question of what evidence is admissible.

The proposed disclosure line is precise. Staff asks whether the public should learn if negotiations occurred and how they ended, whether an ISED arbitration occurred and its outcome, and whether wholesale roaming agreements exist, who signed them and how long they run. It expressly excludes specific award values, rates and other commercial terms. This is the difference between exposing the shape of a market-access process and publishing its price sheet.

CRTC Decision 2024-233 already made commercial negotiation with final-offer arbitration the route for setting wholesale roaming rates in its scope. ISED’s licence rules supply a separate mandatory-roaming framework. If even the existence of a negotiation disappears under black ink, outsiders cannot tell which process is doing the work. The letter does not establish that a particular Saskatchewan arbitration or agreement exists; it asks what may be revealed if one is on the record.

Videotron and SaskTel can respond by November 13. Each must explain specific, direct harm from disclosure and weigh it against the public interest. Until the CRTC decides, the marked material stays confidential.