I had a call yesterday with Ian Collins of Cogeco Data Services as part of the company coming out with their new brand image.
Cogeco Data Services is the brand established after last summer’s acquisition of Toronto Hydro Telecom.
The company is in the process of doubling its route kilometers of fibre as it implements a 10-year, $40M contract with the Toronto District School Board that was announced in December [news release 
pdf, 60KB]. The project, being implemented over a 30-month transition period, will deliver fibre connectivity to 600 sites.
With the school board as an anchor customer, Cogeco Data Services is significantly expanding the reach of its access network, offering a facilities-based alternative for high speed data services.
How do we ensure that policies encourage investment in fibre and expansion of these kinds of competitive options?
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Cogeco Data Services
Investment in fibre and expansion of these kinds of competitive options requires the ability to access the rights of way that the lines run across.
Considering that Cogeco, a company that’s more than familiar with building-out data networks, resorted to buying another ISP to start a fibre network rather than building its own shows that rights of way are difficult to access.
Many owners of rights of way also have some ownership stake in services that already run those rights of way, leading to a conflict of interest that discourages the investment you speak of.
Access to rights of way are critical and I have written frequently that municipalities need to do a better job of facilitating construction of information infrastructure.
But I disagree with your second and third paragraphs. Cogeco Data is about to double its route kilometers, just to satisfy the TDSB contract; they are happy to build.
Not clear to me that there are many, if any, of the conflicts you cite, but maybe I am missing the oblique reference in your innuendo.