Introducing the Annotated Guide to the Procedural Code

Breaking down the CCTS Procedural Code for our Stakeholders

Ottawa (June 21, 2021) – The Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services (CCTS) today released the Annotated Guide to the Procedural Code (AGPC), a document that will help stakeholders understand how the CCTS interprets and applies the CCTS Procedural Code.

The Procedural Code is the framework for how the CCTS accepts, investigates, and resolves complaints made by telecom and television customers against service providers. The CCTS interprets the Procedural Code in a broad and flexible manner in order to process complaints fairly and effectively.

All telecommunications service providers and large, licensed television service providers, and their related exempt (i.e. unlicensed) television service providers are required to participate in the CCTS. These Participating Service Providers (PSPs) agree to abide, and be bound, by the Procedural Code, as a condition of participation in the CCTS. The CCTS monitors PSPs’ compliance with their obligations, including the requirement to abide by the Procedural Code, and reports publicly on their compliance in the annual Compliance Monitoring Report.

“The Procedural Code is the key document that sets out our approach to handling complaints, how we determine if a complaint has merit, and is the source of obligations for customers and service providers who engage in our processes,” said Janet Lo, Assistant Commissioner of Legal, Regulatory and Stakeholder Affairs. “We have created this annotated guide to provide enhanced transparency about our approach and expectations, so both service providers and customers can gain insight into how we handle complaints. We hope that it will be useful to help parties better navigate the CCTS’ processes.”

The purpose of the AGPC is to help stakeholders better understand what complaints the CCTS accepts as in-scope, the CCTS standard of review, the complaint-handling processes, and the rights and obligations of PSPs and customers found throughout the Code. The annotated guide follows the format of the Procedural Code, with a section-by-section discussion and case examples intended to illustrate the CCTS’ approach to issues raised by each section of the Procedural Code.

The CCTS may only accept complaints from customers of PSPs about services that fall within the CCTS’ mandate. The CCTS generally can accept complaints about unregulated telecommunications and television distribution services, but not complaints about concerns that are handled by other governing bodies, are regulated, or relate to the content that is transmitted over telecommunications or broadcasting networks