QUESTION PERIOD — Innovation, Science and Economic Development
Reliable High-Speed Internet Access
June 18, 2020
Thank you, Your Honour. My question is for the Government Representative in the Senate.
Senator Gold, we all know that the current COVID-19 pandemic is illuminating existing gaps and challenges in various areas. One of these is internet access. I’ve written to the Minister of Women and Gender Equality and Rural Economic Development on this topic and am awaiting a response.
The Canadian Internet Registration Authority reported that in the month of April 2020, the median download speed for rural Canadians was 3.78 megabits per second, compared with 44.09 megabits per second in urban Canada.
Without fast and reliable internet access, people in rural and remote communities face a major disadvantage, especially in this new reality that requires us to work, study and communicate using the internet. Students can’t be guaranteed a reliable connection. Youth are prevented from participating in extracurricular groups and leadership programs like 4-H. I, myself, regularly experienced difficulty connecting for Senate committee meetings.
The government has made several commitments on this issue, including in last year’s election campaign. They’ve announced and reannounced funds through the Connect to Innovate program and the Strategic Innovation Fund. Now is the time to act on those commitments. We simply cannot wait until 2030 for a large section of our population to have reliable internet access.
Does your government have plans to immediately address this unacceptable disparity?
Thank you for your question and for raising an important issue which is experienced by Canadians across this country and in many areas.
It’s clear that, if it wasn’t before, that high-speed connectivity is a necessity for people to do their work and indeed to even stay connected with their loved ones and friends from whom they may be separated for reasons of public health.
The government has made major investments since 2015 in this area. It’s invested almost half a billion dollars and helped connect nearly a million households across 900 communities to high-speed broadband, and it’s working with, obviously, the industry and the companies, and in combination with those efforts more than $1 billion has been invested in providing Canadians with high-speed internet. And there is more money on the table for the years to come.
All of that said, the problem still remains for far too many people and far too many communities, and the government is actively exploring options to try to address this as quickly as it can, given the geographical, technological and other constraints that impose themselves in this area. Thank you for the question.
