REACTION: Final decision on mandatory sharing will jeopardize Canadian connectivity

Montreal, June 20, 2025 – The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission’s (CRTC) decision to force telecommunications companies to open their infrastructure to competitors will erode incentives to invest and undermine the future of Canadian connectivity, warns the MEI.

“Incentives are everything when it comes to investment decisions, and this ruling flies in the face of that,” says Renaud Brossard, Vice-president of Communications at the MEI. “Letting companies piggyback on their competitors’ infrastructure removes a lot of the motivation to invest in their own networks.”

The policy requires major telecom providers to offer wholesale access to their fibre optic networks at regulated rates.

Originally limited to Ontario and Quebec in 2023, it was expanded to include the rest of the country in 2024.

Today’s decision confirms the continuation of this policy across Canada.

The MEI has raised concerns that mandatory network sharing creates a free-rider problem, whereby some providers reap the benefits of high-quality infrastructure without contributing to its development.

One of Canada’s largest telecom companies has already responded to the policy by slashing its investment plans. Following the 2024 expansion of mandatory access rules, the company announced over $1 billion in cuts to network investments, including $700 million in 2024–25 alone.

“Undermining investment in connectivity harms Canadian competitiveness,” adds Mr. Brossard. “In a digital economy, failing to incentivize the development, maintenance, and upgrading of telecom infrastructure will result in poorer service and declining innovation.

“Once more, the CRTC has shown that its simplistic, static vision of competition is stuck in the past. It is focused only on how many players are in a market, rather than on reducing the many regulatory barriers to entry that stand in the way of more true, dynamic, facilities-based competition.”

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The MEI is an independent public policy think tank with offices in Montreal, Ottawa, and Calgary. Through its publications, media appearances, and advisory services to policymakers, the MEI stimulates public policy debate and reforms based on sound economics and entrepreneurship.

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