Government Lifts Foreign Ownership Rules For Telecom Carriers

On Wednesday, March 14, 2012, the federal government announced its proposed changes to the foreign ownership requirements for Canadian telecom carriers.

The government will lift the foreign ownership restrictions completely for all telecom carriers with less than a 10% share of the national telecom market. However, as no changes have been proposed regarding the foreign ownership restrictions relating to Canadian broadcasting licensees, integrated carriers holding broadcasting licences will still be subject to the foreign ownership restrictions imposed by the Broadcasting Act. The proposed changes will therefore have the greatest impact on Canadian carriers which do not hold broadcasting licences. For those types of carriers, there will no longer be any restrictions on foreign direct investment in the voting shares of Canadian carriers, subject to any issues that may arise under the Investment Canada Act, which applies generally to foreign investments in Canada.