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.