By Tom Bradley

This week I’ve been seeing and hearing ads from the Federal government defending their cell phone policies. The ads are in response to the telecom industry’s active campaign to discredit those policies.

Seeing my tax dollars used to debate policy with a self-interested industry group galls me to no end, although I’m sure it’s been done before and will again. If the Feds are going to insist on advertising on our behalf, however, I would suggest they pick an issue where they can have a bigger impact on the welfare of individual Canadians. I recommend they lend a hand to the Canadian Securities Regulators (CSA), who are trying to break down investment industry practices that consistently obscure what clients are paying and how they’re doing. As the CSA has found out, it’s not easy moving a powerful industry off its ‘status quo’.

Clearly, the telecom companies went too far in layering fee upon fee and burying them deep in their 3-year contracts, but the investment industry has also been overstepping its privilege. What it has cost Canadians in terms of unearned fees and poor returns far exceeds the dollars spent on roaming charges and activation fees.