By Ken Kelley
AS CANADIANS WEARILY commemorate the first anniversary of the Covid-19 crisis, we’ve witnessed companies, schools and other services migrate to the digital world in unprecedented fashion. While the internet wouldn’t be considered a luxury by most Canadians, it is exactly that to a segment of the population facing the rising cost of home internet service while their household budgets are growing increasingly tighter.
On Tuesday, consumer group OpenMedia virtually hosted the Day of Action for Affordable Internet, bringing together more than two-dozen civil society and social justice groups, policy experts, activists and independent ISPs to highlight not only the critical role of the internet in today’s world, but also how it remains financially out of reach for a significant segment of the Canadian population.
A 2019 survey by ACORN Canada, a community union of low- and moderate-income Canadians, showed 80% of people with household incomes under $30,000 had home internet service. Of the 20% without, 72% of those identified cost as the primary reason, while another 65% of respondents said they had to go without items including food and medication in order to afford home internet service.
One ACORN member, Ray Noyse from Ottawa, discussed how frustrating it is for low-income Canadians to hear about the importance of not feeling isolated and having proper access to online health information (not to mention needing internet access to sign up for a vaccine appointment), but not seeing the government take any action to remedy the situation.
“In 2017, [ACORN] met with the then Minister of Innovation and he announced at that time that [access to] the internet was a right. It’s past time to make this a reality,” Noyes said.
While he currently has internet access at home, Noyes said the ramifications of not having had service earlier in the pandemic took a personal toll: “If I had internet access [from the outset of the pandemic], I would have been able to see my family more often and I would have had access to mental health support. Providing [affordable internet] access to all Canadians must be done now. Not in two-, five- or 10-years’ time.”
Noyes believes if the Trudeau government was serious about increasing internet availability to lower-income Canadians, it would institute an internet cost subsidy similar to what the FCC has done in the United States, where the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program provides low-income households with a credit of up to $50 per month until the end of the pandemic. The program also provides households up to $100 off one computer or tablet.
“This is a benefit that I feel should immediately be extended to all low-income Canadians, as well as those on fixed income, like seniors, as well as any Canadians dealing with job or income loss,” he said.
Oddly, what we did not hear mentioned much during the sessions we covered was the various low-cost broadband programs already offered by certain Canadian ISPs in Canada – including a program launched in 2018 which is being shepherded by the federal government, called Connecting Families. The government promised to invest $13.2 million over five years to refurbish and deliver up to 50,000 computers to eligible families through the Computers for Success Canada program, as well as to develop a secure online portal through which eligible families can sign up for the initiative and access the low-cost Internet service and/or a refurbished computer. It was to aid 220,000 families.
This initiative was immediately supported by major ISPs – as well as some independents (in fact, they were working behind the scenes helping craft it and are currently paying for it) and will allow low-income families access to a broadband subscription at a rate of $10 a month. That said, the program appears to be maxed out, as it seems you no longer can sign up for it – and it was directed at families who currently receive the maximum Canada Child Benefit, which leaves single people with no kids out of the program. It expires in March 2022.
However, just this month Rogers expanded its own eight-year-old program called Connected for Success (with pricing starting at $10/mo. for 25 Mbps) to cover many more low income Canadians in regions of Ontario, New Brunswick and Newfoundland. Telus also offers a similarly priced Internet for Good program. Telus even waived all fees for two months during the pandemic for Internet for Good subscribers.
One consumer panel participant in Halifax called the “Connecting Families” program “a joke,” relating how a Bell Aliant representative told her it was the equivalent of dial-up service. Another allegedly told her the internet subsidy was only good for one year, after which time she would then be put onto a current rate plan.
The fact these programs were not mentioned much during the virtual presentations today may speak to the fact they are not well-marketed by the carriers, or properly pushed by government.
Back to today’s conference, Vancouver’s Penny Goldsmith Kenny, who has worked with the anti-poverty community for more than three decades, spoke of a recent report that showed B.C. seniors are being increasingly left behind due to unequal digital access and a general lack of proficiency, which hinders their ability to complete routine functions including the completion of tax forms or the renewal of identification cards.
“Support and advocacy resources are rapidly being transferred from in person to online models,” Kenny said. “This started before the pandemic, but it has just accelerated since. If they can’t get to a library to use the internet and they don’t have access to a computer at home, those online resources remain out of reach. It’s something that has to change because it’s leaving seniors completely and totally vulnerable and isolated, not just during the pandemic. But even after the pandemic is over.”
Franca Palazzo, executive director of Internet Society’s Canada Chapter, believes it’s the lack of competition that is driving internet prices upward. She highlighted the potential Rogers-Shaw consolidation announced yesterday as proof of an ever-diminishing suite of options available to Canadians.
OpenMedia’s Erin Knight took an even more ominous tone during one panel, noting that Canada won’t see progress until the government addresses some of what she considers to be the industry’s deep-rooted problems.
“Government needs to help, not hinder, independent providers,” she said. “The government correctly sees that independent providers are key to smashing oligopolies and driving down prices, which is especially true for rural Canada because competition will be lacking if indie providers aren’t present. The government is waffling on policy direction, though, and that actually ends up hurting the independent providers and stopping progress on affordability and competition.”
“We were looking back at the way the internet has supported us, connected us and provided a true lifeline for us throughout this crisis,” OpenMedia executive director Laura Tribe said in opening the conference today. “But we could clearly see the privilege of that lifeline not distributed equally or equitably throughout the country. For so many, connectivity is just out of reach, or comes at the expense of other essential needs.
“Every single day this issue remains unaddressed, the digital divide deepens,” she said. “The disadvantages of not being well connected just keep stacking up when kids can’t participate in their digital classrooms because the home internet can’t keep up. When people have to go into their offices despite work from home orders because they can’t work from home, that is physical lives being put at risk. And when seniors can’t stay in touch with the families that they can’t see, or even check their vaccination dates easily because they can’t afford internet service, that’s another level of growing inequality.”
