Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thanks for introducing this motion. I'm looking forward to the committee's study.
I just want to make a point on this, Mr. Chair. I think this lack of access to Internet is certainly a problem in rural and remote Canada, but I think there's another thing that we also need to focus on. I think the bigger problem is less about accessibility to Internet services and more about the unaffordability of Internet in rural and remote areas. I'm going to give you one example to highlight what I'm talking about.
If you live in a city in this country, or in an urban area, you can get 100 gigabytes of Internet for $49.99 a month. You can get unlimited Internet access for about $69.99. Those are the latest pricing plans on the big telecoms' websites. If you wanted 200 gigabytes of access in a rural or remote area over a wireless Internet, which is often the only option available, you can get that wireless Internet, but that 200 gigabytes would cost you somewhere between $800 and $1,000 a month.
I have constituents in my riding who have this issue. It's not that they can't get the Internet access. It's that they can't afford to pay upwards of $500 a month for that access. I put that in front of the committee as something to consider.
You can look at products such as Rogers' Rocket Hub and Bell's Turbo Hub. That covers most rural and remote areas, and even if it doesn't, for about $500 as a one-time installation charge, you can get somebody to install a Yagi antenna to boost the signal to get the Internet. I think most rural residents would be prepared to pay $500 for installation costs. The problem is that the ongoing monthly costs can be well upwards of $500 a month for pretty moderate Internet usage.
That's an issue that as a committee we need to consider when we're drafting our report: It's not only access to the Internet, but it's the cost of that Internet for rural and remote households, many of which are actually in the exurban areas of some of the country's largest city regions. My riding is in the greater Toronto area, and large parts of the north part of Halton region and the southern part of Wellington county have access to Internet, but most people don't have it because it's just so expensive to have.