OTTAWA – Last month, Bernadette Jordan, who was appointed Canada’s first rural economic development minister in January, unveiled both the federal government’s economic development strategy for rural Canada and High-Speed Access for All: Canada’s Connectivity Strategy to help all rural and remote communities “fully participate in the global economy and society.”
Jordan (right), who is also the Liberal MP for the Nova Scotia riding of South Shore–St. Margarets (a large rural riding which extends from just outside of Halifax to near the tip of the Nova Scotia peninsula near Barrington), spoke to one of our Parliament Hill correspondents, Christopher Guly, about getting rural Canadians wired for the 21st century. What follows is an edited transcript.
Christopher Guly: Tell me about the connectivity strategy.
Bernadette Jordan: We knew that you cannot have rural economic development if you don’t have connectivity. It’s one of the things we heard as we travelled right across this country in every meeting that we had with businesses, with municipal leaders, with stakeholders, with our provincial counterparts. It’s all about making sure people have access to high-speed, affordable internet in rural communities. So we had to have an ambitious plan to make sure that we connect 100% of Canadians. That’s what this is all about: how we’re going to get to that point.
CG: You talk about access. What about affordability?
BJ: That will be part of it. As you are probably aware, Minister Bains has already been dealing with the CRTC and has given them a directive about competition.
Everything has to be looked at trough a consumer lens to make sure that it’s not just about having high-speed internet; it’s being able to afford it as well. People shouldn’t be disadvantaged because we know how important it is to have that access.
CG: So we’re talking about universal access.
BJ: We’re talking about 100% of Canadians connected. It’s an ambitious plan.
CG: What if somebody is below the poverty line? Would that person pay a bare minimum – $10 a month – to get high-speed internet?
BJ: Minister Bains is the lead on that in terms of making sure there’s competition in place; we’re looking at it through consumer lenses. There have been programs introduced. There’s the $10-a-month plan for people who are on the highest level of the Canada Child Benefit. We’ll continue to look at better ways to serve consumers.
I talked to some people and they were paying $500 a month for their data plans between two kids and the parents – and that’s just not sustainable for a lot of families. We want to make sure that when you have access to high-speed internet, that it’s also affordable.
Prices are 32% lower where there is competition.
CG: On competition, some independent operators are worried about competing with internet providers that receive government funding to build infrastructure.
BJ: Smaller providers are also eligible for funding. We’ve had a number of meetings across the country with stakeholder groups, with telcos, and some community-based organizations. People who have co-ops, for example, or municipalities who are starting their own ISPs.
I believe 30% of the funding from Connect to Innovate went to those smaller community organizations.
It’s not just the big telcos. We recognize that when a small provider is involved, they have a vested interest in making sure it works.
CG: What about Indigenous communities?
BJ: With Connect to Innovate, there is a billion-dollar investment that will connect more than 900 communities – 190 are Indigenous communities. That’s 380,000 households. We started this in 2016 and is the first tranche of our funding.
Next is the Universal Broadband Fund, which will probably be rolled out in early 2020. Right now, we’re getting started in the process of how that’s going to look and how we’re going to develop that program.
Connect to Innovate was a great program. But we also heard from communities that there were some challenges with the mapping and the ability to do the application processes. So we want to make sure that we’re making it as simple as possible for people as we go forward.
CG: You travelled across the country and talked with rural Canadians.
“I had parents telling me their kids went away to a university and they don’t want to come back because they can’t do their studies if they come home for a weekend.”
BJ: I was in The Pas [Manitoba], I was in Nunavut, in the Northwest Territories, Yukon, Alberta, the interior of B.C., Newfoundland, PEI. I’ve been everywhere! I’m a very rural MP myself. I have a large rural riding and I see first-hand what it’s like. I don’t have connectivity at my house.
CG: What?
BJ: Starting at 7:30 at night I can’t get connected.
CG: How come?
BJ: I live in an area with a lot of summer homes, tourists, after-school [activity], and once people are on it, it lowers my ability to get on.
CG: [Your ISP] doesn’t know who they’re dealing with! Is it wireless?
BJ: Yes it is.
CG: So you feel the pain.
BJ: I know exactly what people are talking about.
CG: Minister, what did people tell you?
BJ: “My kids can’t do their homework online. How do I grow a business? How do I attract talent to an area? How do I get a doctor?”
I had parents telling me their kids went away to a university and they don’t want to come back because they can’t do their studies if they come home for a weekend.
It’s real and it’s very difficult for rural communities, and people in urban centres don’t see that because it’s so easy for them. If you don’t have it at home, you could go to a Starbucks. But we don’t have that option in rural Canada; you’re often half-an-hour, 40 minutes away from a place that has [broadband access].
CG: How do we compare with other Western countries in terms of rural high-speed access?
BJ: I’m not sure I’d be able to answer that in terms of comparability to other places. What I can say is that one of the big challenges we face is that we have such a large country with not exactly a dense populations in a lot of areas.
We want to connect everyone by 2030. It’s 90% by 2021; 95% by 2026; and then the final 5% by 2030.
We’re still developing some of the technologies that we’re going to need in the future to make sure we can connect rural communities – like the low-orbit satellites and, of course, 5G is going to play a major role in how we go forward.
CG: Where are we at with rural connectivity in Canada?
BJ: It’s at 37% [Ed note: We’re talking about the CRTC definition of broadband of 50/10 Mbps upstream/downstream speeds]. It’s still pretty low. It’s 97% in urban areas.
But you could go 10 minutes outside Ottawa and not get good service.
“Rural Canada represents almost 30% of our GDP. It’s not just about watching Netflix; it’s about making sure we can grow our economy and have access to services.”
I’m about an hour-and-a-half outside of Halifax, and there are still places in Nova Scotia that are still on dial-up. I was in a store last year in one area that [the clerk] said, “You can pay with your debit card and we’ll just hope the phone doesn’t ring.” (An incoming phone call would cut off the store’s dial-up connection.)
Rural Canada represents almost 30% of our GDP. It’s not just about watching Netflix; it’s about making sure we can grow our economy and have access to services. Farming now is one of the most high-tech industries that you can possibly have, and they need a good connection.
CG: Is rural connectivity going to be front and centre in the federal election campaign?
BJ: It’s extremely important to me. I’ve been the voice of rural since well before I became the minister. We never before had a minister of rural economic development. We’ve heard from rural Canada about how important it is. Whether or not it’s going to be front and centre, I guess we’ll wait and see.
CG: You’ve set ambitious targets to more than double rural connectivity in just two years.
BJ: Connect to Innovate is going to connect 380,000 households. That will be included in that 90%.
In the fall economic statement, an accelerated capital costs allowance incentivizes telcos to provide coverage. For example, Bell was set to connect 700,000 [households], which rose to 1.2 million because of that allowance.
With the Universal Broadband Fund, we’re going to be leveraging up to $6.7 billion from the Infrastructure Bank, the provinces and businesses to make sure we meet these goals. We’ve got communities who are setting up their own ISPs because they know how important this is. They’re willing to put some money on the table in order to ensure they get those connections and we want to work with them to make sure they do.
