Canada

Canadian telecommunications policy under successive governments has taken for granted that the domestic industry suffers an inadequate supply of market participants. But that assumption is unmoored from reality on various fronts.

Big Canadian telcos, grocery stores, and banks have not seen major changes in profitability over the past four years or compared to their international peers. Rising prices should not be attributed to “price gouging” but plain old inflation.

Age assurances are not the only available option to protect children online. But if policymakers are set on mandating age assurance systems, regulation should be limited to high-risk circumstances, avoid inflexible requirements, and be designed to be technologically and commercially agnostic.

Innovation, productivity, and competitiveness must be top priorities for Canada’s next federal government, not sidenotes or vague aspirations to be addressed with little more than lip service.

Research Money wrote an article about the Centre for Canadian Innovation and Competitiveness's recent webinar on the current state of Canadian AI regulation, where to go from here, and what alternative approaches policymakers should consider.

Legislated procurement targets for SMEs should be a tool to stimulate technology R&D and commercialize Canadian innovations, and not a goal in and of itself. Focusing on firms that develop innovative solutions for government problems will create opportunities for Canadian firms to scale up and drive innovation, productivity, and competitiveness.

Spurring the transition to clean energy is now widely viewed not just as the key to fighting climate change but also as the silver bullet to restoring economic growth. But it's not. They are separate goals that require separate policies, as Robert Atkinson writes in Research Money.

Canada should drop its Digital Services Tax, which will harm Canadian businesses, startups, and consumers and surely lead to a retaliatory response by the U.S. government.

Watch now for an engaging discussion with leading international experts and peers presented by ITIF’s Centre for Canadian Innovation and Competitiveness.

The Competition Bureau of Canada’s 2023 report assessing the state of competition in Canada has several methodological and interpretation issues that raise doubts about the conclusion's accuracy. As such, policymakers should not use the report as the foundation of competition policymaking or to justify a more aggressive antitrust regime.