Industry and Technology Committee on Sept. 24th, 2026

[Doly Begum, Liberal, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Chair.

First, congratulations. I had a chance to speak with the member regarding her bill. I thought to myself how in Ontario a lot of rural areas have similar difficulties. We are still behind in terms of the fibre optics and broadband that are necessary to even get to that level we're hoping to with the cellular connection as well.

I listened intently to the mayor as well. Your experience is one of hanging up so that you can call back. It really reflects on the experience and how we are eliminating a whole group of people from truly being connected to the world and to opportunities. The mayor spoke about what it means for women and what it means for businesses. He talked about social equity.

I wanted to give you the opportunity, as well as Mayor Goyette, to speak a bit about that.

[Marianne Dandurand, Liberal, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

Thank you.

I'm also the chair of the Liberal rural caucus, and this is something we're always talking about. We don't have a member from the Atlantic region with us, but I think the situation there is even worse than it is elsewhere in Canada, particularly in northern communities. This is an incredibly important issue.

I heard Mr. Goyette talk earlier about women's shelters. Some of the stories are horrifying. A firefighter was telling me that when he and his colleagues respond in an emergency, if there's no cellular connectivity, they have to leave the site to call for backup. As you can imagine, the response time is longer in those cases, since the technology hasn't kept pace. It's crazy. Cellular connectivity can really be a matter of life and death. That's why I say it's not anecdotal. So many issues are interconnected all over the country.

Another thing we are working on is resource-based economic development. We are talking about carrying out major projects, developing mines and occupying the north for defence purposes, for example. All of that happens in regions, in places that have no connectivity. That's why bringing connectivity to the regions is even more imperative, economically speaking.

I digressed slightly, but Mr. Goyette can have the floor now.

[Michel-Henri Goyette]

I completely agree with Ms. Dandurand. First and foremost, it's a public safety issue.

Before, we always had the ability to communicate with the outside world using Bell Canada's land lines, but we don't have those anymore. The situation is urgent. We can't wait for some tragedy to happen in a women's shelter somewhere to say we should have done something. This is urgently needed. I realize that Ms. Dandurand's bill will change things for the future, but I still want the government to take action now, so all across Canada, people have access to a reliable cellular network as soon as possible.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ben Carr]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Ste‑Marie, you may go ahead. You have two and a half minutes.

[Gabriel Ste-Marie, Bloc, Joliette—Manawan, QC]

Ms. Dandurand, in the beginning, you said that with respect to fibre-optic Internet connectivity, Ottawa and Quebec City worked together to develop the program and that almost everyone is connected today. It worked.

Do you think the people in Ottawa and Quebec City need to come together and create a similar program to solve the connectivity issue when it comes to cell towers?

[Marianne Dandurand, Liberal, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

I think so. The approach was very successful. The way we were able to connect Quebec so quickly is an example for the whole country.

The federal government's goal in 2016 or just after was to connect everyone to high-speed Internet by 2030. Ottawa and Quebec City worked so well together that by 2023, Quebec was saying that all Quebeckers had high-speed Internet connectivity. There may still be a few exceptions to that assertion, but it was a model for co-operation.

The other provinces are still working on high-speed Internet access, but fibre-optic access is a very important step for cellular connectivity. Quebec is leading the rest of Canada on that front and is currently investing in cell towers in more remote areas. It's doing a share of the work. I think a process based on co-operation between Ottawa and Quebec City is the way to go. Both governments have shown that they can work together to get things done for Quebeckers.

[Gabriel Ste-Marie, Bloc, Joliette—Manawan, QC]

That's great. We will push for that and ask that Ottawa and Quebec City continue working to ensure connectivity. With your bill, it will be a good combination.

I'm running out of time, so I have one last question.

Your bill, C‑268, prioritizes connectivity when changes are made to the spectrum policy framework for Canada.

How should this priority be balanced against all the other spectrum policy objectives, competition, innovation, affordability, efficient spectrum use and so forth?

[Marianne Dandurand, Liberal, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

I think that's the point we're at. The cost of living underlies every decision we make related to affordability. It affects everyone in Canada, in Quebec, in the Eastern Townships, so it's important to address the cost of living for every member of the population.

These initiatives must continue, but we will always have to be mindful going forward that they can't be implemented if we disregard that some places still don't have connectivity. That will remain an underlying factor, and we will continue to work on affordability overall.

[Gabriel Ste-Marie, Bloc, Joliette—Manawan, QC]

Thank you very much for your bill.

I again want to recognize the mayor, whose comments were very important.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ben Carr]

Thank you, Mr. Ste‑Marie.

Mr. Gill, the floor is yours, sir.

[Harb Gill, Conservative, Windsor West, ON]

Thank you.

Madame Dandurand, I have a quick question. If you're sitting at this table in two or three years' time, what does success look like? What will have changed for Canadians, and how do we measure that?

[Marianne Dandurand, Liberal, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

We need to decide what connectivity is. We're going to know it, and hopefully we're going to have connection everywhere in Canada, not only in urban centres but also in smaller communities, as well as on roads. Everybody uses the roads, and there are many places where you don't have connection. This is what it's aimed at improving: connecting rural areas and northern areas, as well as roads that are not connected.

[Harb Gill, Conservative, Windsor West, ON]

I often drive from Windsor to Toronto, and there are sections of the 401 where your signal drops. This is allegedly an urban area.

As a former police officer, I share your concern about public safety. God forbid there is an emergency or a school shooting in a remote area. The kids who are trying to get out are calling their parents or 911 and can't. The police show up, and they can't use their phones either. Land lines are not available. What happens then? The families are going to be calling us to say, “You had a chance to fix this”—through this bill perhaps—“but what did you do?” What are we going to tell them?

[Marianne Dandurand, Liberal, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

I really hope we're going to keep having this consensus around the bill. So far, we have unanimous consent to move this bill forward. I really want it to move quickly to the next steps. Hopefully it's a bill that is going to be good enough for the committee. If it needs to be amended, let's do it and improve it. However, the faster it goes, the faster it's going to have an impact on connectivity where there is a lack of cellphone connection.

[Harb Gill, Conservative, Windsor West, ON]

That's right, but as all of us around this table know that can only happen if we have some degree of accountability and responsibility. Who does that rest with? Does that rest with the CRTC? Does that rest with the carriers? Does that rest with us, who provide the spectrum for people to buy into and provide the services? What I'm getting at is this: Who does the buck stop with?

[Marianne Dandurand, Liberal, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

To give connection is a shared responsibility between different orders of government and telecoms. However, I think it's up to the government to give incentives to help with connectivity. It's true that in areas where there's less population, it's more difficult to make a case for connection for a business.

[Harb Gill, Conservative, Windsor West, ON]

What I'm trying to get at, ma'am, is that we have to have some form of enforcement in this bill. Whatever we can do to amend it to seek that enforcement in this.... When we say that there is shared responsibility, the family or the mother or father who lost a child during an emergency is not going to buy that from us.

I'm not making light of that situation, but I'm saying that we have to have some degree of accountability. We are here to get that accountability from ourselves and the people we give these contracts to.

Those are my questions.

[Marianne Dandurand, Liberal, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

In the bill itself, there is an obligation to report to Parliament, which the CRTC does.

[Harb Gill, Conservative, Windsor West, ON]

Right.

[Marianne Dandurand, Liberal, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

I haven't seen the CRTC not complying with the obligation of reporting to Parliament.

[Harb Gill, Conservative, Windsor West, ON]

Do the carriers follow up and provide the information that the CRTC needs? Can the CRTC enforce, let's say, the coverage maps? The coverage maps say one thing, but reality is oftentimes different.

What enforcement mechanism does the CRTC have to say, “Hey, guys, you didn't follow up” or “You're lying on the coverage map”? What can they do?

[Marianne Dandurand, Liberal, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

These are questions that you can ask of the people from the CRTC who will be coming here as well. They do have tools to enforce within the licensing. They have tools to force the telecom companies to comply with the different laws we have.

[Harb Gill, Conservative, Windsor West, ON]

Let's hope so.

Thank you, sir.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ben Carr]

Thank you very much, Mr. Gill.

Mr. Ma, the floor is yours. You'll be the last in this round before we switch over.

[Michael Ma, Liberal, Markham—Unionville, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

Congratulations to our honourable member.

The bill says that future changes to the spectrum policy framework must “give priority to connectivity” particularly in rural and remote areas and along “numbered roads”. How should that priority be balanced against the other objectives of the spectrum policy, such as affordability, competition, investment, innovation and the efficient use of spectrum?