Broadband strategy coming before the election: rural minister

OTTAWA — The new rural economic development ministry will release the long-awaited national broadband strategy before the next election, minister Bernadette Jordan told The Wire Report in an interview at her Ottawa office. Jordan said her office is working on a national rural broadband strategy, which is going to be part of the rural economic development strategy her office has promised to release in June. That document will detail how the $1.7 billion in rural connectivity funding announced in this year’s budget will be spent. “You can’t do a rural economic development strategy without having a broadband piece. We’re working really hard to make sure that all of the departments that are involved are a part of it and that are we are able to release it all pretty much at the same time." Critics, including the auditor general and the previous CRTC chairman, have long bemoaned Canada’s lack of a national broadband strategy. “We know that is something that rural Canadians talk about all the time. It’s the number one issue I hear about when I go into rural communities. So it’s something that needs to be addressed,” Jordan said. “We’re working with our provincial, territorial, Indigenous, municipal, stakeholders, everybody in order to try and make sure we get it not just done, but get it done right.” Jordan’s office has now taken over both the existing Connect to Innovate program and the $1.7 billion Universal Broadband Fund, and is responsible for 100 per cent of the funds, she said. Jordan added that she will continue to work with innovation minister Navdeep Bains and departmental staff at ISED, and that ISED will continue administering the program, including choosing applicants, with Jordan’s oversight. This year’s federal budget set a goal of having 95 per cent of Canadian homes and businesses meet the CRTC’s basic service standard of 50/10 Mbps by 2026, and then a full 100 per cent at that level by 2030. Those speeds are the same as the CRTC’s current standard for service that should currently be available to all Canadians, and some have expressed concerns the speeds could be considered slow in a decade’s time. “Building for the future is making sure the infrastructure is in place that can be expanded if it has to be, and I think that’s one of the key points of what we’re doing,” Jordan said. “That’s got to be the way forward, because we are going to be dealing with technologies that aren’t even fully developed yet.” Low-earth orbit satellites are “going to be what’s going to connect the really hard to reach areas. Because of the vastness of this country, because of the population density and how spread out we are, we don’t have a one-size-fits-all solution,” she noted. Jordan added that “in some areas, it’ll be the fibre and in other areas it’ll be towers, in other areas it’ll be LEOs. It’ll be a combination of telcos; some municipalities are building their own ISPs.” Since she was named to the newly-created ministry in January, Jordan has been travelling across the country, hitting mostly rural areas in every province and territory. She said the number one issue she’s heard about in those talks is connectivity and getting adequate internet speeds. “It’s connecting to family. It’s being able to do your banking. It’s being able to have an Interac machine in your business...things urban Canadians take for granted or don’t even realize are an issue are huge barriers to growth,” she said. The Connect to Innovate program Jordan has taken over has been the target of criticism in recent months, including in the auditor general’s fall report. Meanwhile, The Wire Report reported in May that 60 per cent of applicants to the program were still waiting to hear back more than two years after the application deadline. Jordan reiterated in the interview that the program will connect 900 rural communities, three times what was initially planned, and that 85 per cent of the projects will be underway this summer. The program got an $85 million top-up in the 2019 budget. “It’s difficult when people have to wait, there’s no question, but we’ve got this extra funding now, and we can go back to some of those applications that may have been waiting, and say, ‘ok, is your project still good to go, are there changes to it, do you still even want it to go forward, have you found other options,” she said. “So we’re just doing that assessment now, and I think you’ll see some more rolling out shortly.” In response to a question about whether there will be a goal for the upcoming funding and how quickly the choice among the applicants will be made, Jordan didn’t specify a timeline or goal for how long the government would take to respond to applicants. “I would love to get them out of the door sooner rather than later. We know people are anxious to get this done,” she said. — With reporting by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca and editing by Ahmad Hathout at ahatout@thewirereport.ca

Broadband strategy coming before the election: rural minister

News | 06/03/2019 11:43 am EDT

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