The deadline is today — Friday the 13th — for Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) bureaucrats to receive part of one of Ottawa’s easiest and sneakiest tax grabs. Figuratively, more than a dozen telco service minivans have been up at ISED headquarters this week bearing $1.8 billion in banknotes. Big Three logos led the delivery brigade — Rogers unloaded $660 million; Bell $415 million; and Telus $390 million. Oh — look who came next: Videotron with $168 million.
The money drop, $1.8 billion from more than a dozen firms, represents the 20 per cent deposit on $8.9 billion the companies bid at an auction for vital government-controlled 3500 MHz spectrum for the coming 5G wireless revolution. The $7-billion cash balance will be paid by the companies on Oct. 4, money that Ottawa will then spend on such election promises such as daycare, housing subsidies and other electioneering gimmicks.
As he shovels the cash into the Trudeau government’s fiscal furnace, no mention will be made by ISED Minister François-Philippe Champagne about where the money is really coming from, which is mainly the pockets of Canada’s 30 million wireless users. Nor will he dwell on the controversies surrounding the latest auction process.
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