Rogers breaks tradition with $7-billion infrastructure sale. Will Bell and Telus follow?

Hello, readers! Welcome back to Business Cycle – a look at what The Globe and Mail’s business columnists are talking about this week. In the latest edition, we’re talking about Rogers’ $7-billion infrastructure sale, Canada’s dairy dispute with New Zealand and Canada’s ongoing productivity problem.

(Don’t forget - Subscribe to this newsletter from The Globe and Mail’s LinkedIn page to get a notification when the latest edition is published every Thursday.)

Where Rogers goes with $7-billion infrastructure sale, Bell and Telus will follow

By Andrew Willis

Last week, Rogers Communications Inc. announced plans to raise $7-billion by selling a minority stake in its wireless backhaul operations – the links between its cell towers and its core network – to an unnamed asset manager.?

Columnist Andrew Willis writes that the idea of parting with infrastructure is revolutionary for the Canadian market: “Until last week, the country’s largest telecom companies all obeyed the same commandment: Thou shalt own thine infrastructure.” But now that Rogers has broken that commandment, Bell and Telus could soon follow.

"Telecom companies around the world have shown there is a long line of investors willing to pay up for stakes in the data networks and cell towers critical to the digital economy. Now that Rogers has broken faith with the long-held belief domestic telecom companies need to own their infrastructure, a flood of asset sales seems inevitable."

What do you think of Rogers $7-billion infrastructure sale? Do you think it will help or hinder Canada’s telecom industry? Check out the full opinion piece here .

The federal government believes in grocery competition — just not for milk, poultry and eggs

By Rita Trichur

New Zealand is escalating its long-running dairy trade dispute with Canada. The country launched a claim against Canada in May 2022, arguing that Ottawa's implementation of dairy tariff rate quotas under the trade pact were against the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership’s (CPTPP) trade agreement rules. The Pacific island country is now requesting “mandatory negotiations.”

Columnist Rita Trichur argues, however, that these diary quotas – and Ottawa’s failure to honour them – are part of an antiquated system that largely shields Canadian dairy products from foreign competition and results in higher prices for consumers at the grocery store.

"New Zealand, of course, is hardly the first country to complain about Canada’s dairy supply management. Both the United States and Britain have also taken issue with our protectionist practices… These dairy disputes aren’t just damaging Canada’s credibility as a free-trading nation – they’re stifling market competition to the detriment of consumers."

What do you think of New Zealand’s dairy dispute with Canada? Check out the full opinion piece here .

Let’s not be na?ve, there are no easy solutions for Canada’s productivity problem

By Kevin Yin

Canada and other advanced economies are experiencing a historic slowdown in productivity growth, writes contributing columnist Kevin Yin . He attributes the problem to a lack of investment, excessive red tape and compounded policy errors. And while Canada can simply produce more ideas or address the misallocation of resources across sectors, productivity is ultimately measured by the dollars it produces and not the creativity of our ideas.?

"We have a tendency to imagine that total factor productivity (TFP) growth comes primarily out of a lab or workshop, where some innovative maverick creates new products that change the world. This ignores the less-sexy but critically important commercialization process of those products, which is something over which policy makers have limited control. Why does a scientific improvement or a new patent not lead to a one-for-one improvement in the productivity statistics? Because ultimately output is measured in dollars, not ideas."

What do you think are some ways to solve Canada’s productivity problem? Check out the full opinion piece here.

More business headlines we’re following this week:?

• How oil-rich Texas became a leader in renewable energy, while Alberta hit the brakes
• Blowing smoke: Big Tobacco is getting a whole new generation hooked on nicotine
• Should you bother having a brick-and-mortar bank in 2024?

The Globe's business opinion pieces are commissioned and edited by Ethan Lou. If you would like to write in this section, please send pitches to [email protected] .?

Thank you for reading our latest edition! We'll be back next Thursday with another Business Cycle roundup.

Until then, sign up for more great newsletters from The Globe and Mail and continue reading at www.theglobeandmail.com . And let us know what you think by sending an email to [email protected] .?