Bloomberg and the Wire Report are both reporting that Industry Minister Christian Paradis held meetings over the past two weeks with 13 of Canada’s largest telcos, including Bell, Telus, Rogers, Shaw, and others. The full list of meetings supplied by Paradis’ office to the Wire Report:

Aug. 16

Cogeco Cable Inc.

Shaw Communications Inc.

Quebecor Media Inc.

Globalive Wireless Management Corp.

Xplornet Communications Inc.

Public Mobile

Aug. 17

EastLink

BCE Inc.

Mobilicity

Telus Communications Co.

Aug. 22

Rogers Communications Inc.

MTS Allstream

Aug. 24

SaskTel

While it is certainly a positive step that Paradis is engaged on the telecommunications file – the spectrum auction, foreign ownership, and digital strategy are all key issues – the list begs the question of whether meetings with public interest stakeholders are also planned. Groups such as PIAC, Open Media, CIPPIC and others deserve face time with the Minister to ensure that the decision-making process includes a public interest, consumer voice. There may be a diversity of views among the telcos on these issues (and among consumer groups), but if the government policy is ultimately about addressing concerns about the state of competition in the Canadian marketplace with a pro-consumer perspective, the Minister needs to actually speak to consumer groups, not just telecom companies.