It's not about money, it's about power. If you hold a physical item, you have the maximum power over it as possible. If you want to entrust someone else with it, go ahead, but at the end of the day your access to the item will be subject to their whims and those of the greater political establishment / woke clergy / corrupt and powerful.
I dunno, but it doesn't really seem like Privacy or Competition is the right angle for this, they're luxuries after all, and it's not really relevant for those political maneuverings. Security is more important. The right actors could hack the entire financial system and more with these kinds of vulnerabilities, with targeted sim swaps. Take for example, the currently unfolding Twitter hack that puts 400m Twitter users' phone numbers up for grabs - including every big fish there is.
Call yourself an anonymous Russian hacker and that might get their attention.
Mobile account authorization is critical for national security because of the rampant requirement to use cellphones as 2FA / password reset for everything else, including GC Key itself. The government needs to step in. The question is what particular person in the government has the power and motivation to do so. Have you tried the CCTS? CSE? They might have some power, but the upcoming potential Cyber Security C-26 act should spell it out for them.
It should be doable to find some big fish to take this on, especially since everyone is vulnerable to SIM swaps assuming every other Canadian phone company has such lax security.
If you are competitive, ambitious, and meritocratic you're supposed to move to the USA and leave the rest of us alone to be mediocre in peace. Brain drain is the Canadian way.