Vote Yes
An Act respecting cyber security, amending the Telecommunications Act and making consequential amendments to other Acts
Bill C-8 creates a national framework to secure critical cyber systems across federally regulated sectors (telecom, pipelines and power, nuclear, transportation, banking, and clearing/settlement). It empowers the Governor in Council and the Minister of Industry to issue binding orders to telecom providers and imposes mandatory cybersecurity programs, supply‑chain risk mitigation, incident reporting (within 72 hours), and compliance with cyber directions for designated operators. The bill enables information sharing among regulators and with the Communications Security Establishment, establishes significant administrative monetary penalties (up to $15M), and provides inspection, audit, and enforcement powers. Some orders can be confidential and exempt from normal regulation‑making procedures, with limited avenues for judicial review and no compensation for financial losses caused by orders.
Overall, the bill materially strengthens the resilience of critical infrastructure, supporting productivity, investment confidence, and macroeconomic stability. Although it conflicts with economic freedom by granting sweeping, secretive powers and imposing compliance costs, the net impact aligns with Build Canada’s growth and competitiveness goals.
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Reducing systemic cyber risk to critical infrastructure supports economic stability and growth, a prerequisite for national wealth.
The bill expands executive powers (including secret, uncompensated orders) and adds compliance burdens, which can constrain economic freedom and invite bureaucratic overreach.
Improved cyber resilience of telecom, finance, energy, and transport reduces downtime and cascading failures, bolstering productivity and Canada’s reliability in global markets.
While stronger cyber standards may reassure international partners, the bill does not directly target export growth and the net effect on exporters is unclear.
By lowering operational and systemic cyber risk in critical sectors, the bill can improve investor confidence and support long‑horizon capital deployment, despite added compliance costs.
It creates a cross‑government enforcement regime and reporting, which may improve coordination but also adds administrative layers; cost-efficiency is not demonstrated.
The bill does not address taxation.
It is a comprehensive, economy‑wide resilience initiative for core infrastructure, aimed at preventing high‑impact disruptions with national prosperity implications.
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