QUEBEC CITY – Through a new initiative announced in the Quebec provincial budget this week, Québec businesses and households in rural and remote areas who still do not have access to a high-speed Internet connection or a broadband cellular network will start to be serviced.
The Québec government said it will work with municipalities and regional county municipalities (RCMs) to accelerate the rollout of quality digital infrastructure in underserved and unserved areas. Thanks to the contribution of the federal government as well, new investment totalling $400 million is planned.
The Fédération québécoise des municipalités (FQM) and the Union des municipalités du Québec will participate in a collaborative process where the rollout of high-speed Internet in the regions will be supported by the municipalities – and one of the FQM's mandates will be to design a precise mapping of current broadband needs.
This reflects the wish the FQM, which said about the Federal Budget, also announced this week: “It is mind-boggling that in 2019, the issue of connecting the regions to the Internet has not been resolved. The major investments announced today by Minister Morneau to fix the situation are therefore more than welcome. Now, we have to ensure that all levels of government, under the responsibility of the government of Quebec work together to connect all citizens, wherever they are located,” said Jacques Demers, president of the FQM.
Back to the Quebec provincial budget, on the broadcasting side more money will be provided to Télé-Québec with an additional $25 million over five years. In the context of global distribution of audiovisual content, which is mostly foreign and in English at this point, the government wants to shore up the production of original French-language content. The new investment will be used to maintain the provincial public educational broadcaster’s leadership in youth programming and offer French-language content that reflects Québec's values and culture and provide a wide audience with access to these original productions on its distribution platforms.
In addition to the $20 million over two year for the Canada Music Fund announced in the Federal Budget, Québec’s government will also provide $15 million over five years in support to the music industry so that it can continue to adapt its business model to the digital age and offer an array of quality music by Québec artists, says the budget.
This is motivated by the decline in proceeds from the sale of physical and digital albums which have not been offset by proceeds from new platforms and the need for players in the music industry to rapidly adapt to this new marketing environment, in particular to ensure the visibility and traceability of Québec's music content that is distributed online, with a view to achieving efficient copyright enforcement and management.
