The Internet Association on Canada’s digital economy

The Internet Association, a Washington based lobby group representing “America’s leading Internet companies” (such as Google, Netflix and Amazon), released a paper today called “Canada’s Internet Economy is Primed for Takeoff.”

The Canadian Press report on the story blames businesses’ slow uptake of digital technology for Canada “losing its international edge on the Internet”. The report calls for the government to introduce a Digital Renovation Tax Credit to encourage Small and Medium sized businesses to improve their online presence.

I noted that the report includes one of the main messages from Google and Netflix that were expunged from the record of the CRTC’s Talk TV consultation when Internet Association members Google and Netflix refused to provide information sought during their oral presentations.

The challenge for the Government is that the nature of “broadcasting” is changing rapidly. Over the past few years, entirely new platforms have emerged for the delivery of content online.

extending conventional broadcast regulations to the Internet would be highly detrimental.

There are a number of other highlights that should be considered by policy makers. The paper has concerns about Canadian intellectual property and privacy laws as well as rules from some provincial governments requiring certain public sector data to be stored locally.

In addition, the report echos concerns raised in my blog that some government policies are having unintended consequences of being harmful to the adoption of e-commerce in Canada, saying “Canada has unnecessary complexity in its rules governing the digital economy.”

Similarly, when considering consumer protection measures, government must be extremely careful not to unintentionally introduce new barriers to digital commerce.

industry remains very concerned that broad application of CASL to all forms of electronic messaging and software, the inflexible requirements and the potential for significant liability will have a negative impact on the growth of electronic commerce in Canada that outweighs the benefits.

The whitepaper concludes that the current competitiveness gap between Canada’s digital economy and those of other G20 nations can be closed with smart public policy, listing 7 specific recommendations, including: “Ensure a strong commercial logic in the development and application of electronic commerce laws, including privacy laws.” It says the standard for evaluating new rules should be to foster world-leading adoption and development of technology and do not impede investment.

After the Google / Netflix dust-up with the CRTC, it is fascinating that the whitepaper acknowledges, as a positive attribute, that Canada has “a Government that generally leans toward evidence-based policy making.” There are 5 pages of references supplementing the 21-page whitepaper.

It is worth a read. The Association’s members should also give consideration to the section discussing evidence-based policy making, to help with participation in future proceedings.

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