This evening’s speech from the throne laid out the priorities of the Conservative government for the next session of parliament.
We noticed the following tidbits of interest to the telecommunications sector in the section of the speech entitled “Providing Effective Economic Leadership for a Prosperous Future.”
As part of ensuring economic security for Canadians, our Government will bring forward a long-term plan of broad-based tax relief for individuals, businesses and families—including following through on its commitment to a further cut to the GST. To complement this, our Government will support Canadian researchers and innovators in developing new ideas and bringing them to the marketplace through Canada’s Science and Technology Strategy. Our Government will improve the protection of cultural and intellectual property rights in Canada, including copyright reform.
Copyright reform could include an examination of downloaded content on the internet, digital rights management tools and potentially the role of ISPs in the enforcement of these rights. Of course, copyright is important to more than just the cultural sector; our software and technology industries are keenly interested in following this debate.
In addition, the speech announced an infrastructure program, the Building Canada Plan, to support long-term growth. While the rest of that section of the speech spoke of support for bricks and mortar type projects, we’ll want to see if communications infrastructure – perhaps in support for extending broadband capabilities to remote regions – is part of the plan.
Finally, we noticed a section in the law and order section of the speech that could have implications for illegal content on the internet and lawful access to customer name and address information:
Our Government will address Canadians directly on the challenge of protecting our free and open society with a statement on national security. The Government will introduce legislation to make sure that Canada has the tools it needs to stop those who would threaten our cities, communities and families…
We’ll watch for further commentary and the response from the opposition leaders over the coming days.
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