Liberal cybersecurity bill comes under fire at telecom summit

TORONTO—A federal bill that would give Ottawa new powers to force telcos to make cybersecurity upgrades — and pay for it themselves — fell into the crosshairs of industry leaders at this week’s Canadian Telecom Summit. During a panel discussion on May 13, various telecom officials called on the federal government to offer some taxpayer dollars to compensate companies required to make infrastructure changes or other updates. “We need to make sure that our national telecommunications infrastructure does all the things that we need it to do for law enforcement and national security,” said industry lawyer Christian Tacit. “But that comes with a catch.” “It can’t all be done at the shareholder’s expense.” Bill C-8, introduced by the Liberals last year, would give the industry minister added order-making authorities that would effectively allow Ottawa to mandate private carriers to make security upgrades that could cost millions. Under the bill, the minister can require service providers to “do anything, or refrain from doing anything” included in subsequent recommendations, which still appear to be months, if not years, away. During a committee appearance earlier this year, Industry Minister Mélanie Joly (Ahuntsic—Cartierville, Que.) said telcos will be responsible for financing any government-mandated changes, noting it will be in these companies’ interests to protect themselves from cyberthreats. “That’s the cost of doing business,” she told MPs. However, according to Tacit, the federal government should provide a certain amount of public funding to ensure any future use of these new authorities are focused and restricted to warranted circumstances. “When you look at Bill C-8, which can mandate somebody to do anything, literally, there should be some public skin in the game,” said Tacit, founder of the Ottawa-based law firm that bears his name. “That will help ensure that the cost borne is not borne disproportionately by network providers, their shareholders, and their customers. But, it will also make governments very realistic about how much resilience and hardening is really needed when they’re paying.” The Canadian Telecommunications Association’s (CTA) Eric Smith, who has previously advocated for a compensatory mechanism to be added to C-8, suggested Ottawa could take inspiration from the U.S. government, which backed its ‘rip-and-replace’ cybersecurity initiative with spectrum auction proceeds and other federal dollars. “When this was brought up years ago, the minister at the time said they knew it was going to cost millions of dollars,” said Smith, the CTA’s senior vice-president. “Part of what we don’t know is that can authorize the government to require telecoms to implement certain technical capabilities into the network, and we can guess what some of them may be, but we don’t know because it’s very broad.” Meanwhile, telecoms consultant Ted Woodhead, who previously headed the regulatory branch at Rogers Communications Inc., said specific estimates remain largely unknown, but the sector anticipates any government orders will cause exorbitant compliance costs. “So, the impact of having these things paid for by the public purse would put a break on, frankly, the overuse of some of these things and the aggressive use.” Bill C-8 has already cleared the House of Commons and is currently being studied by the Senate’s national security committee. It is currently on track to receive royal assent before Parliament breaks for the summer. C-8 is nearly an exact replica of Bill C-26, which was introduced in 2022 by Justin Trudeau’s government as part of its efforts to ban Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE from Canada’s 5G networks. C-26 died on the Order Paper after Trudeau prorogued Parliament early last year. Joly has emphasized that the current government will move forward with banning both companies, once C-8 becomes law. The panel discussion, which took place at the Canadian Telecom Summit’s 25th edition, also featured Marwa Turabi, director of public affairs at Iristel Inc., and was moderated by The Globe and Mail’s Irene Galea. dlegree@thewirereport.ca

Liberal cybersecurity bill comes under fire at telecom summit

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By Davis Legree
|May 14, 2026

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Liberal cybersecurity bill comes under fire at telecom summit

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Telecom |
By Davis Legree
|May 14, 2026