NCF Board of Directors
Minutes of Board Meeting
September 26, 2023
Minutes of a meeting of the Board of Directors
Board members present:
Anis Hanna (gb499) Chair
Majd Karam (gc029) 1st Vice Chair
Peter MacKinnon (fr198) 2nd Vice-Chair
Emmanuel Adenlolu (gc476) Treasurer
Graeme Beckett (aw958) Secretary
Christopher Cope (bz787)
Michael Chan (ga869)
Laura Novitsky (gd477)
Eddie Villarta (gd683)
Chris Taylor (fs180)
Steve Fanjoy (gd782)
Regrets:
None
NCF Management/Staff present:
Executive Director: Shelley Robinson
- Confirmation of Quorum
Quorum was confirmed
- Consent Agenda (45 minutes: questions & comments or corrections)
- Minutes of board meeting August 22, 2023
Motion: To move in-camera.
Proposer: Peter MacKinnon (fr198)
Seconder: Steve Fanjoy (gd782)
The motion was carried.
- Executive Director's Report
Due to time constraints with other important deadlines the Executive Director provided a brief oral report
Operations:
● Office hours are currently Monday to Friday, 9am-7pm
● The office has moved from a mandatory to voluntary masking policy for all staff. We are now also
inviting volunteers to work in-office, though this is not required.
Communications and Advocacy:
● In March, the CRTC released a notice to review the wholesale internet framework. This includes
reviewing the rates that NCF pays for our DSL and cable internet services and getting faster access to
Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH, also known as Fibre-to-the-Premises or FTTP services.) As part of this
process, the CRTC dropped one of the rates we pay by 10%, related to usage. After years of seeing
how the CRTC made decisions that supported big telecom companies like Rogers and Bell, this is a step
in the right direction!
That said, the 10% drop didn’t make much of a difference to NCF’s bottom line as it didn’t affect the
line rate but instead a portion of our usage cost (that had previously been dropped by the CRTC in
2016.) This is particularly the case as NCF hasn’t raised our DSL prices since February 2021. We’re
proud to offer our members this stability during a time of high inflation as part of our work towards
affordable internet and digital equity.
The CRTC review of the wholesale internet system has three main parts. The first dealt with granting
independent ISPs like NCF faster access to FTTP internet the same way we are currently able to offer
DSL and cable services. This was due Monday, April 24th. You can check out our submissions here:
https://www.ncf.ca/en/high-speed-internet/advocacy/
The second part deals with the wholesale internet system more broadly, including the wholesale rates
we pay Bell and Rogers for the service, access to FTTP, and other ways the CRTC can make decisions
that promote affordability.
The third part of the CRTC review is a public hearing. NCF will ask to appear, as we did during the 2015
CRTC hearing related to establishing internet as a basic service. Only those who submit comments
before June 22 can ask to appear at a hearing.
● The NCF submitted comments to the CRTC regarding expedited access to the aggregated Fiber-To-The-Premises in June 2023. October 29th is the next intervention date.
- Election of Officers
Election of officers and committee appointments. (30 minutes)
Motion: To appoint Anis Hanna as Chair, Majd Karam as 1st Vice Chair, Peter MacKinnon as 2nd Vice Chair, Emmanuel Adenlolu as Treasurer and Graeme Beckett as Secretary.
Proposer: Christopher Cope (bz787)
Seconder: Steve Fanjoy (gd782)
The motion was carried.
- Committee Appointments
Motion: To appoint several committees:
Marketing Committee consisting of Peter Mackinnon, Graeme Beckett, Michael Chan, Steve Fanjoy and Laura Novitsky.
Governance Committee consisting of Peter MacKinnon, Graeme Beckett, Majd Karam, Steve Fanjoy and Chris Cope.
Community Networking Committee consisting of Annis Hanna, Majd Karam, and Eddie Villarta
Nominations Committee consisting of Eddie Villarta, Laura Novitsky Emmanuel Adenlolu with Michael Chan assisting.
Proposer: Steve Fanjoy (gd782)
Seconder: Chris Taylor (fs180)
The motion was carried.
Motion: To approve the consent agenda.
Proposer: Christopher Cope (bz787)
Seconder: Eddie Villarta (gd683)
The motion was carried.
- Strategic Discussion: (60 minutes)
- CIRA update and Strategic Planning Roadmap Update for Q4 2023 and Q4 2024 (Shelley Robinson)
This item was conducted in-camera.
- Date of Next Meeting _________
The next Board meeting was anticipated to be October 24th, 2023 but was subsequently rescheduled to November 14th 2023: Hybrid, electronic and in-person at NCF office.
- Standing agenda item for discussion without staff and review (15 minutes)
- Discussion item (Anis Hanna)
This item was conducted in-camera.
Motion: To move out of camera.
Proposer: Christopher Cope (bz787)
Seconder: Laura Novitsky (gd477)
The motion was carried.