Shaw has found itself caught in a squeeze between two arms of the City of Thunder Bay. A review of CRTC Decisions this year indicates that there isn’t a great deal of warmth in the relationship between Shaw and the city owned phone company, TBayTel.
There are some facilities that Shaw leases from TBayTel. A year ago, TBayTel tried to discontinue the lease arrangements, but the CRTC denied the application to withdraw service in March.
Shaw asked the CRTC to order the phone company to sell them the lines. Last Friday, the CRTC said that such an order would require a level of interference in the operations of the telco that would not be justified. The CRTC denied Shaw’s application.
Now, those lines are attached to poles owned by a combination of the phone company and Thunder Bay Hydro, which also happens to be entirely owned by the City.
Thunder Bay Hydro has been separately charging Shaw for each hydro pole that supports the plant used by Shaw, even though the wires are owned by TBayTel. But, the rates TBayTel charges Shaw includes a fee for the poles, whether telco or hydro owned. Which means that Shaw is paying double for some of the poles.
So, Shaw went to the CRTC looking for TBayTel’s rates to be changed to reflect the fact that Shaw is paying for the hydro poles separately.
Unfortunately, the CRTC said that they aren’t the right ones to provide relief:
The fact that Shaw is paying Thunder Bay Hydro support structure rates for a facility that Shaw does not own is not justification to reduce TBayTel’s PSO service rate. The Commission notes that it is not the appropriate body from which to seek relief with respect to the rates charged to Shaw by Thunder Bay Hydro.
It appears that the next step is for Shaw to go to the Ontario Energy Board. Why are they paying the electric company for wires owned by TBayTel?