Ever since the imposition of foreign ownership restrictions on all telecommunications common carriers[1] in the 1993 Telecommunications Act, the issue has been the subject of much debate in Canadian society.

In December 2009, the issue of foreign ownership in the telecommunications industry was brought back to the forefront when the Government of Canada decided to allow Globalive Wireless to operate as a telecommunications common carrier in Canada. This determination varied a decision taken less than two months earlier by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). The question at stake was whether Globalive Wireless could be considered in law to be Canadian-owned and controlled, which is a necessary condition to operate as a telecommunications common carrier in Canada. In this context, in March 2010 the House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology (hereinafter the Committee) began a review of Canada’s foreign ownership rules and regulations under the Telecommunications Act, the Radiocommunication Act, and the Broadcasting Act. Although this review was triggered in part by a very specific case, the Committee took a broader view of the issue, hearing from a wide range of stakeholders including unions, artists’ groups, telecommunications and cable companies, academics, as well as broadcasting companies and industry associations.

In this study, the Committee takes a somewhat different approach than with previous reports on this issue in that implications of foreign ownership restrictions are examined through three lenses: economic considerations, social and equity dimensions, and Canada’s cultural sovereignty. Consequently, this report is structured accordingly. The first section provides a background on foreign ownership restrictions and presents a brief overview of the Globalive case. The following three sections examine respectively the economic, social and culture dimensions of foreign ownership restrictions. Finally, the last section discusses the implications of technological convergence for the telecommunications and broadcasting industries, and provides the Committee’s overall perspective and recommendations.