Dear Greg,
I agree with you on a lot of stuff, but I couldn’t disagree with you more on this one.
Canada is an act of political will. If we want to be a separate nation with a modicum of cultural sovereignty in a global economy we have to do some things to preserve the instruments of nationhood. Maintaining ownership and control of communications infrastructure is one way to do that. And let’s not kid ourselves, there’s no easy way to allow foreign ownership of telecom without affecting broadcasting.
We already have a massive challenge ahead. All the major Internet content aggregators, search engines, portals and social networking sites are U.S.-owned. The great sucking sound of money and talent going south is going to become a major problem, if it isn’t already. At least, if we still have domestic ownership of telcos, ISPs, BDUs and broadcasters, we have more options. And your comment about watching U.S. TV shows just proves the point. Without a Canadian broadcasting system that’s pretty much all Canadians would have.
Canadians know it’s not just about cheap cell calls. We seem to instinctively know that owning our telecommunications infrastructure today is as important as owning a national railroad was a hundred years ago. Business leaders are expressing huge concerns about the “hollowing out” of corporate Canada – and the examples to date have been hotels and resource-based industries. They realize that at minimum, as China and India become the globe’s major economic engines, Canada should not be letting them buy us out if we can’t do the same.
Conservative governments enacted the Broadcasting Act in 1958 and amended it in 1991. The then Conservative government’s 1993 Telecommunications Act speaks to telecommunications playing “an essential role in the maintenance of Canada’s identity and sovereignty”.
Finance Minister Flaherty has pretty clearly indicated that elimination of foreign ownership restrictions is off the table. Even our “new” Conservative government knows not to touch this one.
Peter Miller
Toronto
Peter Miller is a senior communications lawyer and consultant with clients in both the public and private sectors. He specializes in business and policy development, broadcast regulation and planning, particularly in regards to new digital media and is perhaps best known in the industry for his 2002-’05 stint at CHUM Limited as vice-president, planning and regulatory affairs.
