Cybersecurity, LEO satellites, data on OTT services in federal budget

OTTAWA — The 2018 federal budget, released Tuesday afternoon, includes half a billion dollars in funding for cybersecurity initiatives, in addition to smaller investments in looking at the potential of low-earth orbit satellites for internet service in remote areas and for Statistics Canada to collect data on streaming services. The $507.7 million is going to a new cybersecurity strategy, and will be spread over five years, after which $108.8 million will be allocated annually for the strategy. Of that funding, the government will give $155.2 million over five years, and ongoing funding of $44.5 million a year, to the Communications Security Establishment (CSE) for the creation of a new cybersecurity centre. “By consolidating operational cyber expertise from across the federal government under one roof, the new Canadian Centre for Cyber Security will establish a single, unified Government of Canada source of unique expert advice, guidance, services and support on cyber security operational matters, providing Canadian citizens and businesses with a clear and trusted place to turn to for cyber security advice,” it said. To do so, it will need to make legislative changes to allow various government cyber security activities be consolidated in the new centre, though it noted federally the responsibility to investigate criminal activities will remain the purview of the RCMP. The government will also provide $116 million over five years, and $23.2 million a year after that, to the RCMP for the creation of a national cybercrime coordination unit, which will “create a coordination hub for cybercrime investigations in Canada and will work with international partners on cybercrime” as well as creating a reporting mechanism where Canadians can report cybercrime incidents. The rest of the money will go to “further support” the new cyber security strategy. “Taken together, these investments will allow Canadians to continue to benefit from digital connections in a way that protects them, their personal information, and our infrastructure from cybercrime,” the budget document said. When it comes to systems such as telecom networks, the new strategy will provide “olstered security and a more rapid, coordinated and coherent federal response to cyber threats,” it said. The government will also give Public Safety Canada $1.4 million for programs that “support assessments of critical infrastructure facilities, such as energy grids, information and communication technology networks and hospitals,” as well as promoting “online information sharing across the critical infrastructure community.” Supporting cybersecurity-related measures is also part of the $2.2 billion that the government will direct toward improving “the management and provision of IT services and infrastructure within the Government of Canada.” That money will be spread over six years, and will be followed by $349.8 million a year after that once those six years are up. The budget also allocated $110 million over that same six-year time frame to help Shared Services Canada’s partner departments and agencies “migrate their applications from older data centres into more secure modern data centres or cloud solutions.” Most of the funding for those two initiatives will be reallocated from “federal organizations that receive mandatory services from Shared Services Canada,” the budget noted. The document also touched on the issue of rural broadband, looking to the potential of low-earth orbit (LEO) satellites to help improve service in rural Canada, with the budget pointing to the technology as a promising way to provide internet and wireless service to the country’s most remote areas. It allocated $100 million over five years to the Strategic Innovation Fund, “with a particular focus on supporting projects that relate to LEO satellites and next generation rural broadband.” The budget document noted that LEO satellites, because they are located “closer to the surface of the Earth than traditional high orbit satellites, can receive and transmit data with significantly improved response times, speeding up data services, while maintaining the benefits of satellite technology, including the ability to provide Internet across challenging landscapes at much lower costs than fibre-optic technology.” It also noted that Canada is “uniquely placed with space satellite leaders to build and operate LEO satellite technologies.” The budget also put aside funding to collect better data on digital services, including over-the-top (OTT) services. “Government needs to fill gaps in knowledge for new and emerging cross-border services industries, such content streaming services, which are becoming increasingly important to the Canadian economy,” it said, pledging $15.1 million over five years and $3 million a year following that to help Statistics Canada “address data gaps in international trade in services” including digital services and products. Finance Minister Bill Morneau was asked about that funding during a press conference on Tuesday afternoon. “It’s clear that digital platforms are very important in our economy. It’s necessary to have an approach that works for the whole economy, and that’s why we have to consider exactly what’s going on,” he said in French. “But at the same time, we are working with other countries to consider how we could have a tax system for the digital sector,” he said, adding he is working with other countries to look at the issue on a global level. If various countries don’t work together on this, every country will have a different system, a situation that would create problems, he said. The government also hinted at the potential for regulatory change, pledging $11.5 million over the next three years for a regulatory reform, “focused on supporting innovation and business investment.” It will review regulatory requirements and practices “that are bottlenecks to innovation and growth in Canada,” with “emerging technologies such as autonomous vehicles” one of the areas on which it will initially focus. The budget also included $85.3 million over five years and $10 million annually after that to support a new Intellectual Property Strategy. That strategy, which the government has been consulting on and which was announced in last year’s budget, will be unveiled by Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains “in the coming months,” the budget document said. It will include initiatives “to increase the intellectual property literacy of Canadian entrepreneurs, and to reduce costs and create incentives for Canadian businesses to leverage their intellectual property,” including a pilot for a patent collective, funding for improved access to intellectual property legal clinics at universities and creation of an intellectual property marketplace, it added. — With reporting by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca and editing by Ahmad Hathout at ahathout@thewirereport.ca

Cybersecurity, LEO satellites, data on OTT services in federal budget

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Cybersecurity, LEO satellites, data on OTT services in federal budget

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