Evidence of meeting #166 for Industry, Science and Technology in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was internet.
A recording is available from Parliament.
9:15 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Dan Ruimy
Good morning, everybody.
Good morning, Mr. Allison. Welcome to our committee.
9:15 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Dan Ruimy
Welcome, everybody, to meeting 166 of the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology. Pursuant to the order of reference of Wednesday, May 8, we're continuing our study of M-208 on rural digital infrastructure.
We have with us by video conference, from Left, John Lyotier, co-founder and chief executive officer of RightMesh Project; Chris Jensen, co-founder and chief executive officer of RightMesh Project; and Jason Ernst, chief networking scientist and chief technology officer, RightMesh Project.
Welcome, gentlemen, from my home town.
9:15 a.m.
Dr. Jason Ernst Chief Networking Scientist and Chief Technology Officer, RightMesh Project, Left
Good morning.
9:15 a.m.
Chief Networking Scientist and Chief Technology Officer, RightMesh Project, Left
We can.
9:15 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Dan Ruimy
Excellent.
From Xplornet we have Christine J. Prudham, executive vice-president and general counsel.
Do you hear us, Christine?
9:15 a.m.
Christine J. Prudham Executive Vice-President, General Counsel, Xplornet Communications Inc.
Yes. Good morning.
9:15 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Dan Ruimy
Good morning. Great, that's two for two.
We also have Mr. André Nepton, coordinator at the Agence interrégionale de développement des technologies de l'information et des communications.
Good morning, Mr. Nepton. How are you?
9:15 a.m.
André Nepton Coordinator, Agence interrégionale de développement des technologies de l'information et des communications
I'm fine, thank you.
9:15 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Dan Ruimy
We're going to get started. We basically have five-minute presentations and then we'll get into our round of questioning.
We're going to start with Jason from Left.
Sir, you have the floor.
9:15 a.m.
Chris Jensen Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, RightMesh Project, Left
Actually, it's going to be Chris from Left, but very similar.
Thank you for inviting us. We refer back to the mandate of this committee where you said that reliable and accessible digital infrastructure from broadband Internet to wireless telecommunications and beyond is essential. We're focused on the beyond part and John will tell you why.
9:15 a.m.
John Lyotier Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, RightMesh Project, Left
I grew up in a small town in northern B.C., one of your classic rural communities. I was very fortunate to discover technology at an early age, which brings me here today. For the last several years I've been working on technology called RightMesh, which is mobile mesh networking technology focused on connectivity decisions around the world.
In large parts of the world, including Canada, connectivity is not sufficient. Our focus is on helping to bridge the digital divide. We know that 5G technology is not going to be sufficient in the future to address the needs of the population. There are large parts of the world where 5G will be inadequate due to cost structures, network infrastructure densities and other reasons.
We have been working on a project up in northern Canada in a town called Rigolet in northern Labrador for the last few years. Jason will talk a bit more about that.
9:15 a.m.
Chief Networking Scientist and Chief Technology Officer, RightMesh Project, Left
In Rigolet there are no cellphone towers and the throughput of the network there when we first started going there was about one megabit per second. It's now usually around two to four megabits per second, and there are still many people in the town who aren't connected. About 300 people live there and there are about a hundred houses. Many of the people don't actually have a direct connection to the Internet. So they gave us a map of everyone in the town showing the houses that have connections and the houses that are sharing with other people and the houses that aren't connected at all.
They've built this app to try to document the climate change that's going on there. They're monitoring the environment. They're documenting their experiences, but the problem is that it doesn't work very well because the Internet is so limited up there. They invited us in to try to use some of the technology we're building to be able to improve the connectivity in the town. So rather than going up through the Internet for everything, they're able to share from phone to phone to phone and offload some of the traffic from the Internet.
Some of the work that we're doing that supports this is through a Mitacs grant. We received this grant about six months ago now. It was a $2.13 million grant supporting 15 or 16 Ph.D. students and four post-docs over the next three to five years. That's mainly to help with the really technical challenges for some of this stuff, but it's also to support [Technical difficulty--Editor] within the community, doing trials and doing pilot projects up in the north.
We've also had a lot of interest from other communities in the north. This is just our first community up in Rigolet, but many of the other places in Nunatsiavut have also been interested, places like Nain. The other partner in the project, Dan Gillis from the University of Guelph—that's the main university we're working with—has also been meeting with people in Nunavut. We've also partnered with a bunch of the other universities involved in the project. The app they're building is called eNuk. It involves Memorial University and the University of Alberta. We're also working with UBC. This grant is really the way we've been bringing together universities across Canada to solve this problem in a unique way that doesn't necessarily depend on infrastructure.
We know about the types of initiatives where you can throw a lot of money out the window, build a lot of expensive infrastructure, but there are also unique ways to solve the problem using the things that people already have, the funds they already have. We're coming at it with that type of approach.
9:20 a.m.
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, RightMesh Project, Left
Really from a technology standpoint, what we've created is a mesh networking software protocol that allows phones to talk to each other; so it's phone-to-phone communication. Should one person have connectivity, the entire network can have connectivity from that one person.
We're bringing this technology around the world. I'm flying next week to Columbia to meet with different government and industry officials who are looking at solutions, whether it's in Bangladesh or in Africa—really all around the world.
We know there is a growing digital divide and that it's being felt here at home as well. We want to do whatever we can to help the local communities as much as we can help the international community.
9:20 a.m.
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, RightMesh Project, Left
Thank you for giving us a chance to present. The message we really wanted to get across was that it's not just about big pipe infrastructure. At the end of that pipe, you have to get the message out to the people and allow people to connect within their community and do things within it that are important and vital to them in times of need and times when the world is otherwise slipping by them. That's what RightMesh is about.
9:20 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Dan Ruimy
My apology, John. It said “Jason” for some reason on the notice of meeting, and I read it, but it's actually “John”. Thank you for your presentation.
We're going to move to Xplornet Communications with Christine Prudham. You have five minutes.
9:20 a.m.
Executive Vice-President, General Counsel, Xplornet Communications Inc.
Thank you.
Good morning and thank you for the invitation to join you today. My apologies that I could not be there in person.
My name is actually C. J. Prudham, and I'm the executive vice-president and general counsel at Xplornet Communications.
I'm pleased to have the chance to put Xplornet's expertise at your disposal in this very important discussion. It's a subject we know very well.
Xplornet is Canada's largest rural-focused Internet service provider, connecting over 370,000 homes, or nearly 1 million Canadians. We're truly national, serving Canadians in every province and territory. We proudly serve those Canadians who choose to live outside of the cities.
Conquering our country's vast geography by bringing fast affordable Internet to rural Canada is more than just our business; it's our purpose. We've invested over $1.5 billion in our facilities and in our network, expanding coverage while increasing both speeds and data for our customers.
Recently, we were excited to announce a new investment of a further half a billion dollars to bring 5G services to rural Canadians. Starting later this year, Xplornet will double the download speeds we offer to 50 megabytes per second. Next year, we'll double them again, making 100 megabytes per second available to our customers.
To do so, we're using the same technology being deployed in Canadian cities—fibre, micro-cells and fixed wireless technology—to ensure that rural Canadians enjoy access to the same speed and data.
Through innovation and private investment, Xplornet is already hard at work to exceed the Government of Canada's target for broadband connectivity in 2030, well ahead of schedule.
It is against that backdrop that we thank the committee for allowing us to comment on motion 208 on rural digital infrastructure. The motion outlines a number of important measures the government can do to incent further investment.
While the Government of Canada does have a role to play, we would caution that there needs to be coordination and balance taken in financial investments. Otherwise, there is a risk of multiple well-meaning government agencies rushing to fund projects and crowding out sustainable private investment.
However, private investment and targeted financial support from government are only two of three key factors that lead to real improvements in Internet services for rural Canadians.
The third is access to spectrum. Spectrum is the oxygen that our wireless network needs to breathe. More literally, it's the radio waves that carry data between our customers and the Internet.
While data consumption by Canadians has exploded in recent years, all significant spectrum allocations by the Government of Canada in the last five years have focused exclusively on mobile needs. Rural Canada needs access to spectrum in order to keep pace.
We note that providing access to spectrum is regrettably absent in M-208, and we therefore propose that the committee consider an amendment to ensure that this essential ingredient is included in the motion.
Specifically, Mr. Chair, the committee may be aware of the 3500 megahertz spectrum band and the consultation currently under way via Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada. This spectrum band is absolutely critical to serving rural Canadians. The decision, which we understand is imminent, will be the single biggest decision in a decade impacting rural broadband.
If either of the options proposed in the consultation is implemented, rural Canadians will be disconnected. They will lose access to Internet services that we all agree are vital. Instead of moving forward as the motion strives to do, rural broadband connectivity would be set back a decade.
Xplornet continues to have positive discussions with the Government of Canada, and we are hopeful for a solution that does not negatively impact rural Canadians.
Thank you once again, Mr. Chair, for the opportunity to speak to the committee. I'd be pleased to answer questions.
9:25 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Dan Ruimy
Thank you very much.
We've had a bit of a technical difficulty with our translator.
Mr. Nepton, you have five minutes to make your presentation. You can do it in French or English, as you wish.
9:25 a.m.
Coordinator, Agence interrégionale de développement des technologies de l'information et des communications
I'm going to speak in French.
9:25 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Dan Ruimy
Sorry, I'm looking for the thumbs-up.
We're having technical difficulties.
Please do not speak too quickly and that will be fine.
You may begin. You have five minutes.
9:25 a.m.
Coordinator, Agence interrégionale de développement des technologies de l'information et des communications
Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, good morning.
AIDE-TIC, which I have been coordinating since 2009, is a non-profit organization dedicated to the development of information technologies in rural Quebec. We work at the request of communities to establish partnership agreements with large corporations so that people in rural areas have access to services of the same quality and at the same cost as people in urban areas.
By next December, in collaboration with large corporations, AIDE-TIC will have set up 40 projects to develop large telecommunications sites, that is to say 300-foot telecommunications towers serving villages and LTE technology road access. Of the 47 sites that have been developed since 2009, 28 belong to us, on behalf of the communities that requested them. According to its model, AIDE-TIC develops the built infrastructure, and carriers use it on a colocation basis. Thirteen million was invested to provide service to 36 rural communities in Quebec that were without service, and to build five interregional access roads to them.
For the industry, cellular telephony and LTE high-speed Internet, and soon 5G, will require substantial changes that will oppose two needs. On the one hand, the major telecom operators obviously want to increase the number of these towers in view of the 5G technology, which is carried by much lower frequencies. On the other hand, rural communities are increasingly demanding access to equipment and technologies similar to those in urban areas, both on access roads for safety reasons and in the heart of the village.
While AIDE-TIC recognizes that carriers need to increase site density, it is concerned that the significant capital investment required will be at the expense of the last rural networks yet to be developed.
On the eve of 2020, we are talking about safety on our roads, but also about the competitiveness of rural businesses. Motion M-208 eloquently explains the issue of occupying Canada's vast territory. AIDE-TIC believes that this time, we cannot simply leave it to the carriers to set priorities. It is important that the communities with whom we work on a daily basis can also, as beneficiaries, set their priorities in the municipalities where services must be put in place.
We cannot continue to have programs that leave it up to the carriers to define their own priorities. When we call a telecom operator, they mention 100 municipalities they would like to serve. AIDE-TIC wants to intervene, but probably with regard to the hundredth, which is very far from the profitability line, because it is the one that should benefit more from government support and collective intervention. We continue to believe that communities must be involved in program development and that this should not be left to the carriers.
We are very satisfied with the motion that has been proposed. The evolution of wireless technologies means that equipment replacement takes place every 12 to 18 months, which is a very rapid physical obsolescence when it comes to meeting demand.
On two occasions, regarding the 2017 and 2018 budgets, AIDE-TIC argued to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance that an accelerated capital cost allowance, but strictly on large telecommunications sites covering access roads and unserviced rural villages, could be a major incentive for carriers to invest more in rural municipalities.
In closing, allow me to thank you, on behalf of the company I represent, for allowing us to share with you part of our vision and to assure you, at the outset, that motion M-208 fully meets our expectations in this regard.
9:30 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Dan Ruimy
Thank you very much.
We're going to jump right into questions because of our shortened schedule. We're going to start off with five-minute segments in the question period.
Mr. Longfield, you have five minutes.
