After Wednesday's huge list of changes to radio in this country, this pales in comparison. But it still gave me a good laugh I wasn't expecting from the CRTC. 

In a notice on their website, the Commission issued a statement about Telus' announced plans to charge customers who pay by credit card a 1.5% surcharge, to cover the costs that the big banks force them to fork over. The CRTC says it doesn't approve of the practice, but in the same sentence it admits it only has very limited jurisdiction for those who use Telus for their home phone service.

But the vast majority of people who are with the company are customers of their wireless and Internet customers, and that's apparently outside their purview. So their pronouncements about how bad this practice is, is simply finger wagging and does absolutely nothing to stop it.

But here's the part that led to the guffaws. "The CRTC is very concerned about this practice as it goes against affordability and consumer interest."

Really? After all the anti-consumer decisions these guys have come out with, including taking away the discount for private ISPs that they themselves had introduced, they have the gall to say they care about "affordability and consumer interest?"

You laugh or you cry. I chose to laugh because of how absurd those claims are when compared to the reality of their previous decisions. 

CRTC Press Release