2024-2029 Strategic Plan

Message from the Commissioner and Chair of the Board

We are pleased to share our new Strategic Plan which will guide the future direction of the organization from 2024 to 2029.

Reflecting on our previous Strategic Plan, we are proud of the progress we made to strengthen the organization, enhance our approach to service delivery, and build stronger relationships with our stakeholders. Every action we take as an organization is rooted in our mandate to resolve disputes between telecommunications and television customers and service providers. We also take great pride in inspiring our staff so they can continue to learn and grow in their careers and be proud of the work they do.

Over the past several months, we undertook a process to develop a new Strategic Plan. With the help of an industry-leading organization that specializes in Strategic Plan development, we worked with our stakeholders to develop a plan that will help focus on delivering exceptional complaint resolution service and strengthen Canada’s telecommunications and television landscape.

We determined that the new Strategic Plan should continue to focus on achieving service excellence, organizational effectiveness, and stakeholder value: three Strategic Priorities that reflect our current operating environment and strategic goals.

As we evaluated the future direction of the CCTS, we kept coming back to our mandate. We need to be agile so that we can respond to emerging challenges and needs, while always being focused on resolving complaints. We also want to expand the data and insights we share to better inform stakeholders about opportunities for improvement and continue to educate consumers on their rights and paths of recourse.

The creation of this plan wouldn’t have been possible without the input of the many people who participated in interviews and focus groups – including consumer and accessibility organizations, service providers, the CRTC, and our staff. These conversations provided important insights into our strengths, opportunities for improvement, and broader marketplace insights to consider in the new Strategic Plan. We thank everyone who took time to speak with us so we can continue improving as an organization.

We are incredibly optimistic about what is to come. We know there is more work to do, and this plan is the next step to ensuring our continued success in the years ahead.

— Catherine Aczel Boivie, Board Chair and Howard Maker, Commissioner & CEO

Our Mandate

The CCTS is an independent body that:

  • Assists people in Canada who have been unable to resolve disputes regarding telecommunications and television services with their service providers.
  • Administers four government mandated consumer protection codes of conduct issued by the CRTC: the Deposit and Disconnection Code, Wireless Code, Television Service Provider Code, and Internet Code.
  • Reports annually on trends and issues reported in complaints about telecom and TV services in Canada.

Today, the CCTS works with over 400 service providers and has resolved over 175,000 customer complaints regarding phone, wireless, internet, and television services.

Our Refreshed Mission, Vision and Values

The work of the CCTS is guided by our organizational vision, mission, and values. During this strategic planning process, we reexamined our vision, mission, and values and updated them to reflect how we conduct our work every day, our aspirations for the future, and the values we strive to uphold in our work, throughout the organization, and in our relationships with stakeholders.

Vision

Exceptional complaint resolution that strengthens Canada’s telecommunications and television landscape.

Mission

To provide impartial, fair, and effective complaint resolution services, data, and insights to telecommunications and television consumers and service providers.

Our Values

Excellence

We are committed to the continuous improvement of our organization through regular self-reflection and professional growth.

Integrity

We hold each other to the highest standards of professionalism and honesty in all aspects of our work.

Resolution-Driven

We are dedicated to resolving complaints through a consistent, thorough, and timely service.

Collaboration

We are committed to listening to and working with consumers, service providers, and our colleagues to achieve shared goals.

Respect

We strive to create an environment in which all perspectives and viewpoints are heard and valued.

Our Operating Principles

Standards that our staff will carry forward in their work as they represent the CCTS and deliver on our mandate

  • Effective: Using appropriate processes for the dispute in question, we deliver fair resolutions in a reasonable time frame.
  • Rigorous: We carefully analyze disputes, ensure that we fully understand the positions of the parties, and explain our outcomes clearly and logically.
  • Competent: We understand technology issues, act professionally, and show good judgment.
  • Unbiased: In keeping with our role as a completely independent arbiter of disputes, we take no side in any dispute.
  • Fair: We assess the scale and scope of disputes, apply fair process appropriate to the nature of the dispute, and deliver balanced and reasonable outcomes when required to do so.
  • Responsive: We understand the needs of the disputing parties and work to resolve disputes in a manner that reflects and respects those needs.
  • Accessible: All consumers, including those with disabilities, can reach us easily and make use of our processes.

Strategic Priorities

Our Strategic Priorities set the direction and areas of strategic focus for the organization. Each year, we identify initiatives under each area that will be resourced and prioritized to support our mission and vision. The strategic priorities in this plan build on the progress made over the past several years, where we saw significant growth in our maturity as an organization.

Service Excellence

Deliver reliable, efficient, and high-quality complaint resolution services.

At its core, the CCTS exists to resolve disputes between consumers and service providers. To do this effectively, we need to continually evaluate how we provide this service – from the time that we receive a complaint to the time that it is concluded.

Under our last plan, we made significant investments to conduct a service delivery review to look at the entire process from start to finish, and implement major improvements to that process. Now that the new service delivery model is in place, we will explore and implement further innovations to drive continuous improvement.

We’ll also look at enhancing the participant experience by engaging service providers and customers so we can continue to learn about their experience with the CCTS and make adjustments where appropriate.

Organizational Effectiveness

Strengthen and secure organizational capacity, structure, and resilience.

We must continually assess and refine our organizational effectiveness. As we continue to mature and grow, we need to be agile and resilient to unforeseen circumstances that arise, to ensure we can deliver excellent service under any conditions.

We will continue to ensure the organization is financially sustainable and well-positioned to respond to internal and external changes. In addition, we’ll invest in talent management across the employee lifecycle to ensure that the CCTS continues to have a highly skilled, productive, and engaged workforce.

The strength of our people is critical to our success and we’re committed to investing in their development.

Stakeholder Value

Foster collaborative and value-driven relationships with stakeholders.

In speaking with our stakeholders, we heard that having an impartial complaint resolution service is valuable for service providers, consumers, government, and Canada’s telecommunications sector at large. With that in mind, we want to continue strengthening the relationships we have with all of our stakeholders.

Under this priority, we will focus on growing public awareness of the CCTS and our services.

We will expand outreach to at-risk customers that may be at a greater risk in their ability to navigate the marketplace.

We will also focus on improving how we share data and insights with stakeholders on current and emerging issues affecting customers and service providers.

Looking Ahead

Each year, we will plan a variety of tactics for each strategic priority and build operational and budgetary plans to act on them. We will establish metrics and track progress to hold ourselves accountable and to ensure success.

We will review our progress on key activities, report on them, and make adjustments to the plan as necessary to respond to internal and external events.

The CCTS is a valuable institution that benefits Canadians and service providers in the telecommunications marketplace. We’re excited about the opportunity to continue strengthening our organization, supporting our people, and improving how we resolve complaints for consumers and telecommunications and television service providers in Canada.