The Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission is being criticized over a survey it is conducting on cellphone prices and competition that was not widely advertised.

The survey ends tonight at midnight.

The CRTC said government regulations prevented it from advertising and noted there was a previous opportunity to provide input.

Tim Dunne, one of an estimated 33 million Canadians who has a cellphone, believes people would be anxious to express their views.

Survey leaves a lot to be desired

"The problem is you've got to know it exists to even look for it," he said. "I consider myself to be reasonably well-read and I keep up with current events but I hadn't heard about this until you, as a journalist, brought it to my attention."

Dunne has good reason to want to comment.

Earlier this year, his cellphone provider tried to bill him for service after he cancelled his account. Even though he tried to reason with the company, it sent his account to a collection agency.

The account was finally closed and the amount removed after he filed a formal complaint with the Commission for Complaints for Television-Telecom Services.

Dunne said the survey should have included more insightful questions with an opportunity for people to comment.

The CRTC announced on Dec. 3 it was launching a survey for wireless customers "to determine how best to ensure Canada's mobile wireless market provides robust competition, innovative services and better prices for all consumers," chairperson Ian Scott said in the news release.

The survey is part of a review of cellphone services launched in February 2019 "to ensure that the needs of Canadians are being met in the mobile wireless market," according to the news release.

Open to abuse?

The survey, which gave people less than a month to respond, had no paid advertisements and received little publicity, other than a few tweets and posts on the CRTC's Twitter and Facebook accounts.

"We're discussing whether to regulate wireless companies more and whether to control their prices, so it's a big deal. It's important for people to comment," said John Lawford, executive director of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre in Ottawa.

John Lawford with the Public Interest Advocacy Centre says the CRTC survey is "kind of useless." (Christopher Gargus/CBC)

However, that's about the only good thing he has to say about the survey. He worries it is open to abuse.

"What's a bit odd about this survey is that it's being done online in an unscientific manner, in the sense that I'm not sure what controls they have on it for people to participate again and again and again," he said.

Lawford said what the CRTC is doing is "not a scientific survey that you can say represents the population in general in Canada."

He said he would have preferred the commission hire a proper polling firm to do a telephone survey.

He thinks some of the survey questions are "a little bit biased" and he worries that, coupled with its unscientific nature, will encourage cellphone companies to dismiss the results.

"So it's kind of useless. It's very late in the process," Lawford said.

Update, Jan. 3, 2020: Following publication of this story, the CRTC contacted CBC to clarify the open questionnaire was not intended to be a scientific study. The online survey is complementary to a telephone survey administered to a nationally representative sample of 1,200 Canadians aged 18+.

Government policy prevented advertising

CRTC spokesperson Patricia Valladao said in an email that the commission has been posting messages about the survey on social media accounts at regular intervals since Dec. 3.

She said the CRTC typically would do online advertising to make Canadians aware of the survey and encourage them to fill it out, but "we were not able to do so this time due to the government's rules surrounding advertising during a federal election."

Those guidelines say that Government of Canada advertising activities must suspended on June 30 in a year with a fixed federal election date.

The federal election was held on Oct. 21, but Valladao said all government advertising has to be approved by the Privy Council Office and no advertising plans had been approved beyond June 30 until recently.

She said the dates for the survey were determined by the CRTC's need to ensure that there was sufficient time to conduct the survey, prepare a report in both official languages and put it on the public record before the public hearing starts on Feb. 18.

She noted Canadians have already had one opportunity to provide their views by submitting comments on the public record between Feb. 28 and May 15.

Lawford said despite its flaws, he's urging people to complete the survey.

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