Only 50 communities, 25,000 households, have so far been connected under Connect to Innovate
By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – The federal government has denied the vast majority of the nearly 900 applications it has received for the $585 million Connect to Innovate rural broadband program, according to an order paper answer from the rural economic development minister last month.
So far, the program has received and assessed all 892 project applications, with 874 of those receiving a response and 610 denied funds, according to the answer.
“It’s shockingly high,” Brian Masse, NDP MP and innovation critic, said in an interview with Cartt.ca about the high number of turn-downs. “It was not expected.
“It’s a complete condemnation of the program because it shows that the parameters they’re operating under are restrictive,” he added. “What’s the government’s alternative…? Is it that the boat is scuttled for those 610 locations?”
The office of rural development minister Maryam Monsef said that “projects were first assessed against essential criteria, which included an assessment of the feasibility and sustainability of the proposed technology and the applicant’s proposed project management and budget. Projects were then comparatively assessed based on their overall cost and impact, potential community benefits, partnerships, customer affordability, and other factors. Ultimately, projects that best met the objectives of the program were selected.”
In total, the program will disburse $563 million for the projects, while $22 million will go to salary, operations and management of the program, the order paper answer said. One-third of the funding has gone to the big three telecoms, another third went to smaller providers, and the last third to Indigenous-led organizations, Monsef said at an Industry committee meeting on Monday.
Announced in budget 2016, the initial five-year, $500-million program, which received an $85-million top-up in last year’s federal budget and has a minimum speed threshold of 5 Mbps download, has so far delivered $103.5 million of the pie to recipients as of February, the order paper answer said. An additional $197 million is expected to be handed out by March 2021.
The program has also so far connected only 50 communities, or about 25,000 households, out of the 975 communities, or about 400,000 households, it expects to hook-up to high-speed internet by 2023. But the government said it expects to connect “most” of those communities by the program’s original deadline next March, the answer said, which reported only 29 connected communities as of February 17.
The 400,000 objective is “high,” the office of Sebastien Lemire, Bloc Québécois MP for Abitibi-Témiscamingue in Quebec, said in an email, in response to a question about how realistic such a goal is in light of the number of current connections under the program now.
Lemire’s office said it counts four CTI projects covering nearly 300 homes in his riding, but still many households in its rural areas are not connected. It said the deadlines need to be shorter.
For Masse, the 50 communities figure is “shockingly low,” partly, he said, because the government has been pushing the narrative of universal high-speed internet access as an equality issue.
On Thursday, Masse (pictured) released an NDP strategy to bring connectivity to 100% of Canadian homes within four 
years, a much shorter timeline than the connectivity objectives of the current government, which is timestamped for 2030 to get 50 Mbps download and 10 Mbps upload speeds to every Canadian who wants it.
The three-point plan would declare high-speed internet an essential service with consumer price protections, establish a build-out plan starting in the next 12 months with 95% to completed in 36 months and 100% within 48 months, and fund the objectives with the $6 billion that the government said would likely be gained from spectrum auction proceeds and the CRTC’s separate $750-million Broadband Fund.
Monsef’s office said in an email “most” of the projects are already underway and, despite the Covid-19 disruption, progress continues. The office also said in the coming months, the government will release a tracking tool that will provide up-to-date status “in terms of whether a project is in its planning stages, under construction, or complete.”
At the committee meeting Monday, Monsef said, “over 50,000 households, across 150 communities that don’t currently have high-speed internet, will have access by the end of this year. By the end of next year over 250,000 households that don’t currently have access to high-speed internet, will – that’s across 750 communities. By 2022, close to 400,000 households across 972 communities that today have no access to high-speed internet will be connected, with a baseline speed of 50/10 or better.”
CRTC stats show that about 60% of rural Canadians didn’t have access to the baseline internet service objective of 50 Mbps download and 10 Mbps upload at the end of 2018. The federal government committed to getting 100 per cent of Canadians access to those speeds by 2030 under its $1.7-billion Universal Broadband Fund, announced in last year’s budget, which will build on the separate funding sources and coordinate the other federal programs.
Earlier this month, Monsef announced, in light of the Covid-19 crisis, new timelines for its connectivity strategy will be announced “soon.”
“CTI projects are generally complex infrastructure projects that require more than one year to design, undertake consultations and permitting, and build within challenging terrain,” the answer said, in response to how much the program would be disbursing by March 2021. “Under the program, disbursement of funding occurs once recipients submit claims for eligible costs identified in their contribution agreement.”
Monsef noted that projects underway under the CTI program don’t include funding from the CRTC’s $750-million Broadband Fund, the low-earth satellite funds announced in last year’s budget, commitments from the Canada Infrastructure Bank, and other federal programs.
Monsef also said Monday the government is doing away with the 25-square kilometre hexagon model, used to map what areas have access to certain broadband speeds, and will use a more detailed mapping method that will determine connectivity down to 250 metres. The new accurate measures will allow applicants to more specifically target fund applications.
