[business week] Canadian Industry Minister Tony Clement today said his country can open its telecommunications industry to foreign investment while leaving its broadcasting industry protected, contradicting the country’s regulator and other groups.
“I’m not saying it’s easy, but it certainly isn’t impossible to draw the distinction between telecommunications as a field of endeavor, and activity and broadcasting,” Clement told a Parliamentary committee studying the loosening of Canada’s foreign ownership restrictions. “In our view, it is possible to deal with those separately.”
Clement’s assertion puts him at odds with the country’s telecommunications regulator, which said last month Canada needs to limit foreign ownership of companies such as Telus Corp. and BCE Inc. to no more than 49 percent to have effective content policies.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in March opening Canada’s C$40 billion ($39.3 billion) telephone industry is a priority for him, which could herald the biggest changes to ownership rules since caps were imposed in the 1980s.
Clement Says Canada Can Open Telecommunications Alone
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