Foreign Ownership: Telcos, cable, stand behind Commission

Perry HoffmanOTTAWA – It’s not very often the country’s telecommunications and cable firms agree with anything the regulator has to say, but on foreign ownership rules, they at least partially support the CRTC’s proposal to a Parliamentary committee studying the matter.One after the other last week, they addressed the House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology on the need to liberalize current foreign investment restrictions for both telecommunications and broadcasting companies. They echoed the CRTC’s position that regulations can protect Canadian content on television and radio.“While we do not believe there is a problem today, given our...