GATINEAU – In an unprecedented move, CRTC chair Jean-Pierre Blais used a break in the Basic Service Objective hearing to make a significant point through a personal address to the hearing: we’ve decided already that broadband is essential to Canadians. (The full text of that address can be found here.)
“Overall, in a nutshell, witnesses that appeared so far have agreed to a self-evident truth: today, in Canada, broadband is vital,” he said. “So, unless you disagree with this conclusion, let us not spend more hearing time on this self-evident truth. We have other, more important things to focus on.”
During his nearly 20-minute address, Blais pointed to several factors that led to his conclusion that broadband is essential. He highlighted the fact that governments are increasingly pushing their services into the digital sphere yet less well-off Canadians struggle to get those very services online.
“I myself witnessed departments propose cost saving business cases, while I was at Treasury Board Secretariat, premised on shifting citizenship engagement from physical offices and telephone contacts to online. This has had consequences,” he said.
Blais also noted that governments don’t factor in connectivity costs in their calculation of social assistance programs, even though this connectivity is “essential to schedule medical appointments, ensure success in school for their children, facilitate searching for a job, and to do many of the online activities many of the rest of us take for granted.”
The chair went further wondering who is best positioned to address issues critical in this proceeding such as access (geographic, technical, affordability and skills) and strategies to deal with the access gaps. The CRTC has a role to play, he added, but noted governments should be front and centre, should markets forces be the primary approach or should there be a combination of approaches.
“This brings us to the most important questions to be asked: does Canada currently have a National Broadband Strategy?” (Ed note: As we’ve shown in repeated stories on Cartt.ca, it does not. The previous Conservative government repeatedly promised one was coming, yet never delivered.)
For much of the past decade, Canada’s broadband strategy has relied on a combination of market forces with targeted government funding for rural and remote communities. Some groups have suggested that the CRTC implement a subsidy to help bridge the gap for both connectivity and affordability issues.
Telus Corp., which had to then face the pressure of being the first big ISP to appear after Blais’ comments, agreed that a 5/1 broadband service (5 Mbps download, 1 Mbps upload) should be included in a basic service definition. But the company also argued market forces, combined with targeted funding, should remain a key tenet of CRTC policy on broadband.
“To the extent that there are challenges with broadband availability, affordability or adoption, they are focused ones. The Commission’s remedies should be similarly focused and proportional,” Ted Woodhead, senior vice-president of federal government and regulatory affairs at Telus, said in his opening remarks.
Under questioning, he noted that the instances of unserved or underserved communities are very few and that number will decline to zero based on what wireless and satellite broadband provider Xplornet Communications has indicated will soon be available.
“So after listening to everything last week you believe that that target will be met?” asked Saskatchewan and Manitoba commissioner Candace Molnar, pointing to Nunavut as an example.
“The problem of poverty is far vaster than the price of any one good or service.” – Ted Woodhead, Telus
Woodhead responded that virtually everywhere will have access to 5/1 service.
“Obviously there are going to be homes and people in Nunavut just simply by where it sits on the planet that are not going to get that level of service,” he said, adding that some places aren’t even well suited for satellite. “So when I say we should come up with targeted solutions to those things, that it’s those gaps that I think are the ones that should be the focus.”
When it comes to affordability, the company believes that this is an issue best addressed by federal and provincial governments through targeted tax measures. If the Commission were to take on the affordability problem, its solutions “are likely to be costly, difficult to administer, and ultimately of limited impact because the problem of poverty is far vaster than the price of any one good or service,” said Woodhead.
Telus is, however, following in the footsteps of Rogers Communications in developing a low cost broadband offering for low income families with children. The company said it is currently in discussions with a number of federal government departments and Computers for Success (formerly Computers for Schools) to do a pilot program priced at $9.95 per month.
The British Columbia Broadband Association (BCBA) also appeared before the Commission on Monday, arguing that broadband speeds should be remain at the current goal of 5/1 Mbps. Bob Allen, chair of the association and CEO at ABC Communications, added that no changes in speeds should come before spending from rural broadband program Connecting Canadians is done expected in 2017 or 2018.
“I think that the market will push those speeds up beyond the 5 and 1. Again as we are in the middle of a very expensive program that we’re all working very hard on to get to 5 and 1, it would be very disruptive for you to change that target speed in the middle of that program,” he said. “That would be a time when you might actually move the speeds up.”
This brings us back to Blais. He acknowledged that the federal government has proposed additional funding for broadband in Budget 2016, but added that it doesn’t seem to be linked to a broadband strategy, which is a problem.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” he said, “in light of all this, it strikes me that this proceeding, launched over twelve months ago, may very well be the last best chance to get it right – a chance to create, together, a coherent national broadband strategy, through an open and transparent process, based on evidence from all Canadians, achieved (to the extent possible) through consensus and implemented through shared responsibility.”
