Database

There are labour market tests for contractual services suppliers (CSS) and independent services suppliers (ISS).

The International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) criticized Canada for its lacking anti-piracy enforcement, mainly because it offers a home to many pirate sites. IIPA also characterizes Canada as a pro-piracy country in general because of the very high download pirated rates per capita.

Moreover, the Canadian “notice and notice” system requires service providers to retain records on the identity of subscribers whose accounts have been used for unauthorized file sharing or other infringing behaviors. Shortly after Internet service providers became legally obligated to forward copyright infringement notices from content owners to consumers, a spokesman for Industry Ministry told to a newspaper that “there is no obligation for Canadians to pay these settlements."

There are exceptions to fair dealing with works for the purposes of news reporting, criticism or comment. An intermediary is exempt from copyright infringement if the work is used for research or private study, education, parody or satire. While Canadian copyright law still involves the two-stage analysis, the first stage has become so easy to meet that Canada appears to be inching closer to fair use.

Pursuant to subsections 14.1(1) and (2) of the Investment Canada Act, the review threshold for acquisitions is CAD 600 million (approx. USD 413 million) in enterprise value for investments to directly acquire control of a Canadian business.

There are several cases reported in which investment in Canada's telecom sector was blocked based on national security reasons. In 2013, the intended acquisition of the Canadian firm Manitoba Telecom Services’ Allstream Division by Accelero Capital Holding (from Egypt) was blocked on national security grounds. The legal basis was the national security review of investment regulations from 2009, which allows the Canadian government to block investments in strategic areas of the economy.

In another earlier case, VimpelCom Ltd., which is controlled by a Russian firm, withdrew a request to acquire a controlling interest in the Canadian new entrant wireless carrier, Wind Mobile. The reasons were also national security concerns expressed by the Canadian government. In the same year, a second acquisition was rejected by the Canadian authorities. It involved Lenovo Group Ldt. and Blackberry Ltd. The Canadian government opposed this transaction due to BlackBerry's ties into Canada's telecom infrastructure.

Additionally, the Canadian government has established new rules restricting and monitoring investments by foreign state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in Canada, which indicate concerns about the prospects of foreign nationalization. The definition of SOEs has been expanded by the Investment Canada Act to go beyond foreign state ownership and to include also entities “influenced” by a foreign government.

The Investment Canada Act establishes the review of large acquisitions by non-Canadians and imposed a requirement that these investments be of "net benefit" to Canada.

At least 80% of the members of the board of directors of facilities-based telecommunications service suppliers must be Canadian citizens.

Saskatchewan Telecommunications is the only government-owned company in Canadian telecommunications market. According to its statutes, foreign direct investment is not allowed in this company.

Foreign investors are allowed to invest in telecom companies, but investment in companies with a market share of more than 10% have the following restriction: foreign ownership of transmission facilities (except for submarine cable operations) is limited to 20% direct ownership and to 33% ownership through a holding company. The effective limit is 46.7% total foreign ownership.

Foreign-owned carriers with less than a 10% share of the total telecommunications market are not subject to the before mentioned limits and are permitted to continue operating if their market share grows beyond 10%, provided that the increase does not result from the acquisition of, or merger with, another Canadian carrier.

Although Canada is a signatory to the WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA), its coverage schedules do not include "telecommunications related services" (CPC 754) and only one sub-sector of "telecommunications services" (CPC 752), which are both important services sectors for digital trade. The European Market Access Database also states that Canada’s commitments regarding the procurement market access under the GPA are relatively limited and they only relate to federal procurement.

U.S. companies have complained that Canada imposes conditions in bids requiring local storage and processing of personal information collected pursuant to the procurement contract (more information available in chapter on data policies).

Canada is governed by different sets of procurement rules both at federal and sub-federal levels. This leads to a fragmented and confusing government procurement regime.

Manufacturers and importers of blank audio recording media are liable for payment, upon first sale or distribution in Canada, of blank audio recording media imported into Canada or manufactured in Canada. The following copyright levies apply: CD-R/RW: EUR 0.21 per unit, Audio CD-R/RW: EUR 0.21 per unit.

The final duty applied is 12.7%.