We’re not sure where the MPs get some of their facts
OTTAWA – Since January when Nova Scotia MP Bernadette Jordan was appointed Canada’s first Minister of Rural Economic Development, she has met and spoken with Canadians from all walks of life, including those in rural and remote communities from coast to coast to coast.
Speaking before the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology on Thursday, Jordan said the number one concern expressed almost unanimously by the people she visited was their need for better internet connectivity. This was the first committee meeting studying private member’s bill M-208, which calls for expanded digital infrastructure (wireless and wired) in rural areas.
“We know that when it comes to digital infrastructure, there’s an urban-rural divide,” Jordan said told the committee.
“While nine out of 10 urban households have access to high-speed internet services, only one in three rural households have that same access. The lack of high-speed service means these communities lack the essential services that urban Canadians take for granted. It means rural Canadians cannot sell their products and services online and must resort to accessing government services through the phone instead of online. Farmers with multi-million farms and agri-businesses still rely on phone and fax machines to run their operations. These realities having a real impact on people in rural Canada and, in some cases, are leaving them behind.”
(Ed note: We’re not sure where Minister Jordan got her statistic that 67% of rural households lack access to Internet connectivity. We don’t know how she’s identifying what a rural household means to her, but her number, according to the latest CRTC Communications Monitoring Report which says 66% of rural households already have access to speeds of at least 25 Mbps, is just wrong. Perhaps she meant access to certain broadband speed thresholds, but she didn’t explain while in front of the committee. UPDATE: The Minister's office explained her comments here.)
Jordan insists the divide in wireless is greater than at-home internet service, stating there are many areas in the country, including roads and highways, where mobile phone service is unavailable. She says the federal government must work with provincial, territorial and private sectors to help bridge these divides.
“That lack of connectivity is a significant challenge to those working in the transportation industry and is a risk to public safety, particularly for rural Canadians who need to be able to communicate along roadways, fields and natural areas,” she added. Plus, more coverage will make the national public alerting system more effective.
Since launching the Connect To Innovate program in Budget 2016, which was a continuation of the former government’s Connecting Canadians program, Jordan says the federal government has leveraged $554 million from the private sector and other levels of government that has resulted in approximately 180 projects.
“These projects will improve internet connectivity to 380,000 households in 900 communities, more than tripling the 300 communities initially targeted. In total, more than 20,000 kilometres of fiber network will be installed across the country, connecting households and businesses, schools and hospitals, as well as supporting mobile wireless networks.”
With Budget 2019, Jordan added the government made an ambitious new commitment, ensuring that, over time, every Canadian household and business will have high-speed connectivity. The government anticipates having 95% of the country connected by 2026 and 100% of the country connected by 2030.
With more than $1.7 billion in broadband investments contained in Budget 2019 (to be spread over a decade), which includes a new, universal broadband fund in addition to a top-up for the Connect To Innovate program, extending backbone structure to under-served communities is a priority. Additionally, she noted, the funds may be used to support last-mile connections to individual homes and businesses.
According to Jordan, those funds are in addition to the $1 billion to be invested over the course of the next decade by the Canada Infrastructure Bank.
During the Q&A session that followed Jordan’s presentation, the Conservative MP Michael Chong (Wellington-Halton Hills) commended Jordan for acting to ensure internet availability to all Canadian citizens, but also emphasized the importance of affordability.
“If you live a mile outside the City of Guelph in rural Wellington county and you want 100GB of high-speed data, it will cost you about $300 per month,” Chong stated, without quoting the company from which that service is available. “And if you want 200GB, which is not unreasonable for a family of four with kids in high school that need to access online resources, you’re paying between $500 and $700 a month. Obviously, that’s out of reach for many rural families so they choose not to put it in place.”
(Ed note: From our research, we can’t find prices anywhere that high in that region. Bell’s residential prices are not that high, nor are Eastlink’s, which serves bits of that area. Xplornet offers services in that area, of course, but even its 25Mbps, unlimited data package is listed at $120/month. UPDATE: Mr. Chong called us back on Friday and noted the prices he was quoting are from Bell's cellular internet service rate plans which, if used for video streaming and/or interactive gaming, could well cause customers' monthly costs to rise that high. He also added rural customers who need reliable internet have to choose mobile offerings like Bell's Turbo Hub or Rogers' Rocket Hub because rural wired and rural satellite or fixed wireless internet is often slow, unreliable, or both. He noted also that prices have come down for those services of late, but not enough to be affordable for many of his constituents.)
Chong said prohibitively-high pricing on high-speed internet, not the lack of availability, is the reason why so many rural Canadians are foregoing internet service. He seemed to be conflating speed and capacity somewhat though as he spoke.
(Ed note: All that said, it’s also worth noting independent ISP RuralNet, which serves parts of Grey County, just north of Guelph, offers a wide range of speeds, from $40 to $200/month, with no data caps at all.)
Lisa Setlakwe, Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategy and Innovation Policy Sector, noted that as the CRTC moves to make decisions on a variety of policy areas, that they look at matters through a consumer’s lens, taking affordability, consumer rights, competition and more into account, too, likely referring to the new, proposed policy directive.
“People say there is more affordable internet for 200GB a month than paying $600,” Chong added. “The problem is, it’s not low latency, high-speed internet access. The problem with satellite technology is there’s a great deal of latency in the service. The problem with direct line of sight, radio frequency internet access is that it’s not as reliable.”
Committee member David de Burgh Graham (Lib.) asked Jordan how she believes the government can get smaller wireless operators involved in the deployment of internet service when the barrier to entry to access spectrum is so high.
Jordan said that in the most recent spectrum auction, there was a carve-out for rural and smaller communities, and that she sees the opportunity as an opening for smaller companies looking to enter the marketplace by competing on a local or regional level, as opposed to national.
(Ed note: We have no idea what they’re talking about here because here are the 600 MHz spectrum auction results.)
