The Impact of Canadian Federalism on Telecommunications Infrastructure Development
This paper examines Canadian federalism's impact on broadband telecommunications infrastructure development in Canada by discussing the limits of the federal telecommunications regulatory sphere in relationship to provincial policy frameworks. I argue that the extensive centralization of federal regulatory powers over telecommunications has not been meaningfully leveraged to promote a national policy approach to telecommunications development. Telecommunications infrastructure development is further frustrated by vastly divergent regulation of right-of-way by provincial regulators and municipalities. As a consequence, telecommunications infrastructure development has become the domain of provincial governments. This paper further considers the emergence of a regime of competitive federalism and province-building through policy experimentation by provincial governments in the absence of meaningful fiscal and collaborative federalism.