Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen of the committee.

Allow me to introduce Jean‑François Lescadres, who is vice-president of finance at Videotron, and Jean Péladeau, who is vice-president of operational convergence at Quebecor and also my 32-year-old younger brother. As Pierre Corneille said, “For souls nobly born, valour does not await the passing of years”.

I should note at the outset that retail sales account for a very significant portion of the revenue generated by the Canadian wireless industry. According to our estimates, in 2023, over 80% of wireless product sales in Canada took place in person and in stores.

Of course, the Big 3, as we like to call them, Bell, Rogers and Telus, undeniably have control over the wireless retail market. In addition to their respective stores, they rely on a network of third-party retailers, which they control in whole or in part, operating under generic names such as “La cabine t”, “Wave Wireless”, “Wow! Mobile boutique” to name only a few.

Right now, over half of third party retail wireless sales in Canada are made in locations controlled by one or more members of the big three. Those controlled locations include hundreds that are operated by the behemoth GLENTEL, which is a joint venture between Bell and Rogers that sells product and services from exclusively its owners and their flanker brands.

We've learned that Loblaws intends to withdraw the products and services of our subsidiary Freedom Mobile from its Mobile Shop stores as of June 30, by all indications in favour of an exclusive agreement with Glentel.

Until now, The Mobile Shop has been a neutral reseller offering its customers the products and services of all major Canadian wireless service providers. We therefore met this news with surprise and concern, as that neutrality is now being undermined. The loss of these important outlets for Freedom Mobile will slow the expansion of our brand in some markets.

If its agreement with Loblaws is confirmed, Glentel will expand its operational portfolio to 180 The Mobile Shop locations in Loblaws-owned grocery stores. It will also mean the loss of 180 potential points of sale for other competitive brands, such as Freedom Mobile. This will further entrench the oligopoly in the Canadian mobile phone market.

We have raised our concerns to the president of PC bank and Loblaw head office. However, they are standing by their decision, putting commercial interests ahead of the interests of consumers. We also asked the president and CEO of GLENTEL about the possibility of distributing Freedom Mobile in their retail locations and, unsurprisingly, our request was flatly and immediately denied.

This comes as we're expanding the Freedom Mobile service area by availing ourselves of the MVNO regime to offer our services to more Canadians in new markets, such as through our recent expansion in Manitoba. What Loblaw shrugs off as a simple decision regarding suppliers that, in their own words, “does absolutely nothing to competition” actually hampers our efforts to increase viable competition in more markets.

In Winnipeg, for example, after GLENTEL's potential takeover of The Mobile Shop, 73%—yes, 73%—of third party retailers will be controlled by the big three, leaving very little room for Freedom to expand. GLENTEL alone will operate over half of all third party wireless retail stores in this area.

It's clear to us that this agreement between Loblaws, Bell and Rogers represents a new attempt by the dominant players in the market to thwart wireless competition in Canada. This new pressure from Loblaws, a company that the Competition Bureau is currently investigating for anti-competitive tactics in the grocery sector, needs to be seriously considered.

Moreover, I must reinforce that the business model underpinning uncontrolled joint ventures like GLENTEL only serves market concentration. In no other oligopolies would two out of three major players be allowed to work hand in hand excluding competitors from such an essential retail channel and giving consumers a misleading sense of objectivity along the way.

As parliamentarians, you have the power to act to force Loblaws to reverse its decision and to dismantle joint ventures such as Glentel, whose business model goes against the public interest and impedes healthy competition by restricting the choices available to Canadians.

Thank you for your attention.