By Ahmad Hathout
YELLOWKNIFE – Members of the legislative assembly of the Northwest Territories (NWT) are losing patience with a regional government they say hasn’t formulated an economic plan to pull the territories out of a broadband slumber that awaits long-desired expanded connectivity while relying on very few companies to deliver it.
During assembly debates last week, MLAs lobbed questions and concerns at Finance Minister Caroline Wawzonek about an alleged lack of broadband financial planning in the budget to apply for federal programs, while also charging that the region has become too reliant on Bell subsidiary Northwestel, the dominant service provider in the region, to connect homes and businesses.
“If we have to wait for the CRTC and Northwestel to develop broadband for all of our communities, it’s probably not even going to happen in my lifetime,” MLA Kevin O’Reilly said during debate last week. O’Reilly did not respond to requests for comment. (Ed note: Northwestel wants to roll out unlimited broadband in certain areas, but the CRTC has not yet given its approval as it considers the company’s application and objections from competitor SSi Micro.)
MLA Jackson Lafferty, who also didn’t respond to a request for comment, was also critical during debates of the speed at which Northwestel’s project can be deployed. “If we wait for Northwestel, we may not see the Internet,” he said. “There is a CRTC federal counterpart, and as you know, the federal drags its heels, as well,” he added, according to a transcript.
This summer MLAs approved a nearly $2-billion budget for 2020-2021, following public consultations by the government of the Northwest Territories (GWNT) intended to gauge how it should focus its financial energies.
The resulting “what we heard” report found that stakeholders wished for the internet “to be made a public utility or that Northwestel’s monopoly position be terminated,” as a response to concerns of availability and the high cost of telecommunications in the region.
“As many as 249 individuals logged onto the four public webinars and sent 189 inquiries and comments to the Minister of Finance,” according to the budget consultation framework. “Four separate stakeholder sessions with business, non-government organizations, Indigenous governments, and mayors and chiefs were also held with the Finance Minister to discuss the GNWT fiscal situation.”
The supplementary capital estimates includes a line that projects it’ll complete by 2022-2023 an extension of its major broadband project, the Mackenzie Valley Fibre Link — an initial 1,154-kilometre north-south backbone fibre line running roughly between Fort Simpson and Inuvik. The extension would run along the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk highway and is planned to be funded with an application to the federal Investing in Canada Plan.
Because the fibre line is a backbone project, the government is banking on private ISPs, like Northwestel, to continue to connect the last mile to residents and businesses.
O’Reilly asked during debates if the government is planning to have its own distribution system for connectivity, but finance minister Caroline Wawzonek said the government is not an internet provider and that’s a “very different conversation.”
In August, the CRTC awarded Northwestel $62 million in a first round of funding that focused on Canada’s north and satellite-dependent regions. Two of the three approved Northwestel projects will focus on fibre delivery to provide access to 50 Mbps download and 10 Mbps upload to 37 communities and slightly more than 8,000 households. Northwestel serves 120,000 northern Canadians in 96 communities scattered throughout the Yukon, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, northern British Columbia and Alberta.
While the federal government has yet to release details and a call for application for its $1-billion Universal Broadband Fund, O’Reilly said he’s concerned the alleged lack of planning will hurt the government’s ability to get some of the money. “If we don’t have a plan together, a costed plan, to take to the federal government, we’re going to miss the boat again on federal funding like we did with housing,” O’Reilly said.
Wawzonek said in response that the government wants to “be there, and we want to be at the front of the line with visionary plans.” She said she’s had “outreach opportunities” with the federal government about future broadband funding.
She also added the government has been co-operating with local territory governments for fibre line expansion, and noted the CRTC’s approval of Northwestel’s third Broadband Fund application to provide satellite services to communities including Wekweeti and Gameti.
Todd Sasaki, a spokesman for the GNWT finance department, told Cartt.ca on Thursday the government is working with the Tłı̨chǫ Government (TG) to extend fibre along the new Tłı̨chǫ All Season Road to Whati, and it’s also talking with industry partners about the feasibility of installing redundant fibre infrastructure across Great Slave Lake. Sasaki confirmed that the UBF are options for funding both those projects.
