Case information

Courts — Jurisdiction — Regulatory boards — CRTC — Class action — Class action claiming Bell charged unreasonable and unconscionable telephone rates for sending and receiving long-distance calls from provincial correctional facilities — What is appropriate test to determine whether a court should decline jurisdiction over a civil claim that deals with issues which fall within jurisdiction of CRTC — Where CRTC has forborne from regulating such issues in accordance with its statutory mandate, does this mean that it has left those issues for courts, or that it has exercised statutory power which courts must respect.

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The respondents seek to bring a class action on behalf of prisoners in Ontario correctional facilities and everyone who paid for collect calls originating from such facilities during the relevant period. They claim that Bell charged unreasonable and unconscionable telephone rates for sending and receiving long-distance calls from provincial correctional facilities. On the certification motion, the motion judge found that it was plain and obvious that: (1) the claim that the commission paid to Ontario was an indirect ultra vires tax, and (2) the claim against Bell and Ontario pursuant to s. 72(1) of the Telecommunications Act, S.C. 1993, c. 38, disclosed no cause of action. The motion judge granted a permanent stay of the remaining claims of (1) unjust enrichment claim against Bell and Ontario, (2) breach of consumer protection legislation and unconscionable contract claims against Bell, and (3) breach of fiduciary duty against Ontario. The Court of Appeal upheld the motion judge’s decision to dismiss the ultra vires tax claim. However, they substituted a temporary stay in place of a permanent stay of the remaining claims until such time as the CRTC elects to decide whether to forbear or to decide whether the rate was just and reasonable.