OTTAWA – Describing rural and remote connectivity as “one of my top priorities”, minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Navdeep Bains said that work is underway on a “Canadian connectivity strategy” to ensure that all Canadians have access to broadband.
But whether that strategy is the oft discussed yet elusive national broadband strategy remains to be seen.
Minister Bains’ comments come in response to an auditor general report tabled Tuesday in the House of Commons that included a scorecard on rural and remote connectivity. The report found that high-speed Internet access continues to lag behind for certain population groups in Canada, notably communities in rural and remote areas, despite significant investments by the public and private sectors to support broadband deployment.
The report was also critical of the Feds’ Connect to Innovate (CTI) program, saying that ISED did not implement the program “in a way that ensured the maximum expansion for the public money spent”, as it did not include a way of mitigating the risk of government funds displacing private-sector investment.
“We found that (ISED) did not provide key information to potential applicants for funding under the program”, reads the report. “As a result, some applicants had to invest more effort to prepare a proposal, and all applicants lacked full knowledge of the basis for selecting funding proposals.
This finding matters because a key principle of the Connect to Innovate program was to avoid displacing private-sector investment and to intervene only in instances where a business case did not exist.”
But Minister Bains touted CTI as a success, saying that it is helping to bring high-speed Internet to over 900 rural and remote communities across Canada, more than triple the 300 communities initially targeted, including 190 Indigenous communities.
“The primary intent of the CTI program is to connect some of our most rural and remote communities—many of which are Indigenous—that would be left behind without targeted government support”, said Minister Bains in a statement. “While it might be more expensive to connect communities in Nunavik, Nunavut and Matawa, the time is now to do the heavy lifting; all Canadians deserve to participate in the digital world and economy, regardless of their postal code.”
The report also said that small Internet service providers have not had sufficient access to high-quality spectrum to support broadband deployment in rural and remote areas, and criticized ISED for auctioning spectrum licences for geographic areas that were too large for smaller service providers to submit bids for.
“The secondary market for unused spectrum did not function well, partly because licensees had little business incentive to make unused spectrum available for subordinate licensing”, continued the report. “In addition, the information on unused spectrum was not readily available to interested Internet service providers.”
Minister Bains said that ISED has accepted the report’s recommendations.
“Rural Internet will continue to be a priority for our government”, he added. “We are laying the ground work for 5G deployment, including in rural areas, and making significant amounts of spectrum available through upcoming auctions.”
