Telecom complaints watchdog highlights compliance issues in annual ‘report cards’

A person uses a cellphone in Ottawa, Monday, July 18, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

Canada’s telecom and television complaints watchdog is once again urging providers to better inform their customers about its services, as it says just under one-third were fully compliant with the organization’s public awareness requirements last year.

The Commission for Complaints for Telecom-Television Services (CCTS) released its annual compliance report cards on Tuesday, measuring how well service providers have fulfilled their obligations to remain in good standing.

The report said 32 per cent of the 65 providers it audited in 2024 were fully compliant with rules to inform their customers about the CCTS on their respective websites, compared with 35 per cent in 2023 and 18 per cent in 2022.

Although most providers had some information about the CCTS on their websites prior to being audited, the watchdog said many of the issues it highlighted were about how and where the information was presented.

Four-in-10 had “some” compliance issues while 28 per cent lacked any level of compliance, which was roughly in line with the results from the previous four years.

The CCTS said it engages with non-compliant providers to help rectify the issues. In the past, it has publicly named companies with recurring compliance issues, noting that is one tool at its disposal to enforce the obligations.

In more severe cases, such as a provider refusing to implement a resolution ordered by the watchdog following a complaint, it could consider expelling the company from its membership. That would prompt the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to get involved, opening the door for financial penalties.

“Canadians with unresolved phone, TV, or internet service complaints should be made aware about the CCTS by their providers,” said Janet Lo, CCTS assistant commissioner for legal, regulatory and stakeholder affairs, in a press release.

“Providers have a responsibility to inform customers about the CCTS on their websites, customer bills, and in their escalation processes. This year’s report cards show some progress on website information, but customers are still telling us that they are not being informed by their providers.”

The report cards showed 43 per cent of audited provider websites with a search function did not return search results for the CCTS, down from 52 per cent the prior year. All service providers the CCTS previously flagged for repeated non-compliance with the search function requirement had rectified the issue by 2024.

In April, the commission published its mid-year complaints report, which revealed it handled 11,909 total gripes from customers between Aug. 1, 2024 and Jan. 31, 2025.

That was up almost 12 per cent from the same reporting period a year earlier. The increase was driven by customers’ issues with their wireless service, which represented around half of all complaints submitted, followed by internet issues, which accounted for just over one-quarter of total grievances.

On Tuesday, the CCTS said it confirmed nine instances during that six-month period of service providers failing to implement resolutions to which they had agreed, or remedies that the CCTS ordered following an investigation.

The commission said in all nine cases, it worked with providers to fix the issues and ensure the customers obtained the required remedies.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 17, 2025.

Sammy Hudes, The Canadian Press