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Canada’s telecommunications regulator is warning telecom companies not to charge extra fees to customers who pay their bills by credit card. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) released a decision Thursday that denied an application from Telus Corp. to charge a 1.5-per-cent fee to customers who pay by credit card in some markets. The application focused narrowly on customers in some small markets in Alberta and B.C. where fees are regulated by the CRTC. Telus already notified customers in all other markets that it would charge a 1.5 per cent fee for customers paying by credit card starting on Oct. 17. In its decision, the CRTC blocked the fee being charged in those regulated markets on the basis that it was bad for consumer affordability and it warned Telus and its competitors that it was prepared to fight the fees more broadly. “Should this practice continue, or should it become a practice within the telecommunications industry, the Commission is ...

Boards of directors and their compensation committees have long rewarded executives for financial achievements. Now, companies that do not include ESG goals in performance-based incentives could soon find themselves taking heat from investors. Getty Images/iStockphoto A majority of Canada’s biggest public companies, including its largest emitters, now tie some portion of executive pay to achieving environmental, social and governance targets, but some industries are embracing the practice more than others, a study by the law firm Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP has found. The survey revealed that 68 per cent of companies in the S&P/TSX 60 Index of large corporations offer chief executives and other top brass incentives at least partly based on meeting ESG objectives. Some of those companies are also among 40 high emitters chosen by the institutional investors group Climate Engagement Canada (CEC) as targets to push for tougher emission-reduction goals. Of that list, four-fifths lin...