Former Harper Minister Calls Telecom Policy a Waste of Money

A former top minister in Stephen Harper’s Conservative government criticized his old boss’s telecommunications policy and called for a total overhaul of Canada’s foreign competition rules in a speech less than a month after declaring his intention to run for leadership of the right-leaning party.

Maxime Bernier said the previous government, which lost power to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals last year, wasted billions of dollars by giving cheaper access to wireless spectrum to smaller companies and hurt competition by not opening up the market more to foreign players. Bernier also said the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission, which regulates the industry, should be completely dismantled.