The Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corporation, commonly known as SaskTel, is a Canadian Crown corporation based in Saskatchewan. Owned by the provincial government, SaskTel offers a range of telecommunications services, including wireline and wireless communications. Its services encompass landline telephone, mobile networks, broadband internet (such as copper DSL, fibre to the home, and wireless broadband), IPTV, and security solutions.

According to Appendix E of the Directive on the Management of Procurement, as amended in August 2021, federal departments and agencies are required to ensure a minimum of 5% of the total value of their contracts is held by Indigenous businesses. To support this mandatory target, Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) announced that it would invest CAD 35.2 million (Approx. USD 26.6 million) over five years to modernise the Procurement Strategy for Aboriginal Business (PSAB, renamed the Procurement Strategy for Indigenous Business (PSIB)), including expanding the scope of the mandatory set-asides and broadening the definition of eligible “Indigenous business”.

Although Canada is a signatory to the WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA), its coverage schedules do not include "telecommunications-related services" (CPC 754), and only one sub-sector of "telecommunications services" (CPC 752), which are both important services sectors for digital trade.

Saskatchewan Telecommunications is the only government-owned company in the Canadian telecommunications market and it is owned by the province of the same name. According to its statutes, foreign direct investment is not allowed in this company.

Telecommunication carriers, including internet service providers that own and operate transmission facilities, are subject to foreign investment restrictions if they hold a 10% or greater share of total Canadian communication annual market revenues, as mandated by the Telecommunications Act. According to Art. 16 of the Act, a Canadian carrier is eligible to operate as a telecommunications common carrier if it is incorporated, organised, or continued under Canadian or provincial laws and is Canadian-owned and controlled, operates only a specified transmission facility, or generates less than 10% of its annual revenue from telecommunications services in Canada. To qualify as Canadian-owned and controlled, Canadians must own at least 80% of the voting interests, and the entity must not be controlled by non-Canadians.

Canada requires that Canadian citizens comprise at least 80% of the membership of boards of directors of facilities-based telecommunication service suppliers.

The review of foreign investments in Canada is primarily governed by the Investment Canada Act (ICA), which outlines the procedures for three types of review: economic, cultural, and national security. Under the ICA, foreign investors are required to notify the Canadian government when acquiring a controlling interest in an existing Canadian business or when establishing a new one. Generally, control is defined as acquiring more than 50% of the equity or voting interests of an entity, though in some cases, acquiring more than one-third of the voting interests in a corporation is also considered an acquisition of control.
Investments exceeding these thresholds are typically evaluated on whether they provide a “net benefit” to Canada and must receive affirmative approval before proceeding. The thresholds for this assessment vary depending on whether the investor is a state-owned enterprise or a private entity and on whether Canada has a free trade agreement with the investor’s country, as it does with Israel, the United States, and the European Union. Importantly, the national security provisions of the ICA do not have monetary thresholds; any investment, regardless of its size, may be subject to a national security review.
Since March 2022, with respect to investments by direct or indirect Russian investors, the Minister of Industry (or the Minister of Canadian Heritage, as regards investments in Canada’s cultural sector) can find the acquisition of control of a Canadian business to be of net benefit to Canada on an exceptional basis only, under the Investment Canada Act. On the other hand, with respect to national security reviews, should it be determined that an investment, regardless of its value, has ties, direct or indirect, to an individual or entity associated with, controlled by or subject to influence by the Russian state, this would support a finding by the Minister that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the investment could be injurious to Canada’s national security as set out in Part IV.1 of the Investment Canada Act.

Canada is a party to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT).

Canada has a clear regime of copyright exceptions that follows fair dealing, which enables the lawful use of copyrighted work by others without obtaining permission. Art. 29 of the Copyright Act, as amended by the Copyright Modernization Act, establishes exceptions to copyright for news reporting, criticism, or comment. An intermediary is exempt from copyright infringement if the work is used for research, private study, education, parody, or satire.

There are reports that copyright is not adequately enforced online in Canada. The International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) has criticised Canada for its lack of anti-piracy enforcement, mainly because it offers a home to many pirate sites. The IIPA also characterised Canada as a pro-piracy country in general because of the very high download pirated rates per capita. Moreover, the Canadian “notice and notice” system requires service providers to retain records on the identity of subscribers whose accounts have been used for unauthorised file sharing or other infringing behaviours; however, "receiving such notices lacks any meaningful consequences under the Canadian system."

Canada has ratified the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Copyright Treaty.

Canada has ratified the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Performances and Phonograms Treaty.

Canada is a signatory of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Information Technology Agreement (ITA) of 1996 and its 2015 expansion (ITA II).