Industry Committee on May 30th, 2017

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

Fair enough.

I have another two and a half minutes. Let's go on to the gap and when that process of assigning that $4.4 billion is going to come.

Really what we are trying to do is find a focus area that's complementary to all the work that has already been done, is being executed, and is being planned. I hear that in 2019, we'll finish the majority of the projects.

I see projects going on. I see projects being planned. I see different studies that have been done. On this side we are trying to figure out where we should focus our report or our anticipated work we are going to do for the committee.

[Sue Hart]

You are correct that for the first program, connecting Canadians, the projects will end by March 2019. For connect to innovate, we have quite a high volume to assess.

Just to elaborate a little bit, we're involved right now in the screening and assessment. We look at various things, including the commitment to open access, which is a condition of the program. We have essential assessment criteria that look at the technology solution. There is a team of engineers who look at the technology itself, whether it will actually deliver the proposed benefits that are in the application, and whether the technology is sustainable.

On the project management side of the equation, we're looking at whether there is a demonstration of this project actually being implemented.

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

With one minute to go, I want to bring it back to when. Is it going to be, say, August of 2017?

[Sue Hart]

We're targeting to be able to brief the minister toward the end of the summer. The assessment will help to inform him on a selection of projects.

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

Will that be some time in October?

[Sue Hart]

I think it would be some time toward the end of the summer.

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

By early fall we would be able to see where the new landscape is going to be, based on the approved projects. Is that a fair statement?

[Sue Hart]

The projects initially are what we call “conditionally approved”. They're conditionally approved based on us finalizing the due diligence with the applicant in negotiating a contribution agreement. We will do the final checkup to see if they actually have the financials to do it and a final check of the statement of work to ensure that they have the logical network design and that the design is appropriate to be able to do the project.

With that information, we would then recalculate what the gap would be, assuming that these projects are successful.

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

And the time frame would be the end of summer.

[Sue Hart]

The time frame, I think for all of that work, is taking us into the fall now.

[Majid Jowhari, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

Thank you. That's what I was looking for.

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Lobb, you have five minutes.

[Ben Lobb, Conservative, Huron—Bruce, ON]

Sorry for being late. There was a grade 8 class coming through, so I had to swing by and see some of the early risers this morning at Parliament Hill.

Forgive me if you already mentioned this. I wonder if you have a definition of “rural”. I think “northern” is pretty self-explanatory. Does it matter if it's rural in southwestern Ontario versus eastern Ontario or Saskatchewan?

[Sue Hart]

We define “rural”—and we use Statistics Canada data—as populations that are fewer than 30,000 people. Our maps highlight the communities that are eligible. Most of those communities are far smaller than that. They're actually about 100 or 150, and some are fewer than 100, but the definition itself that we use to calculate which communities would be eligible is a population of 30,000.

[Ben Lobb, Conservative, Huron—Bruce, ON]

Is the $750-million broadband fund to be leveraged with...? For example, in my area, we have co-operative telecom companies. Is it to be leveraged? Is it 50:50, 3:1, or 2:1? How are you looking to do that?

[Christopher Seidl]

That is the CRTC fund that we put in place. As I mentioned earlier, we have an open consultation now, so those details are being worked out.

Part of the fund design means there needs to be some level of government funding on the table as well. There is some pre-selection or prioritization from some government entity putting some money toward the program. That will help identify that area.

[Ben Lobb, Conservative, Huron—Bruce, ON]

My other question is about “last mile”. We hear “last mile” all the time. We've had the minister come a couple times and give different explanations of what he sees as “last mile”. What is the definition from CRTC or Industry Canada of exactly what “last mile” is?

[Luc Delorme]

Our definition of “last mile” is essentially that where a high-capacity pipe comes into a town and terminates in a building or something, anything that goes from there to the household, whether it's via fibre, cable, or wireless, is all considered “last mile”.

If I can give an analogy, the backbone is the highway and the off-ramps, and the last mile is the surface streets. It's typically anything that connects the households to the backbone.

[Ben Lobb, Conservative, Huron—Bruce, ON]

Basically, then, if I'm understanding it, in very crude and high-level terms it's a big pipe to a big building in a small town. That's the idea of last mile?

[Luc Delorme]

No, the last mile is essentially from where that big pipe ends to then go to all the buildings.

[Ben Lobb, Conservative, Huron—Bruce, ON]

Okay, so it's the last farmhouse on the last quarter-mile on the last concession. That's the last mile?

[Luc Delorme]

Yes, or it could be in town. That's the longest mile, good point, but it could be.... For example, even in urban Ottawa there are these fibre points of presence within neighbourhoods. You might see these little green pedestals on people's front lawns or backyards. From there, the DSL or the cable splits out to all the houses. That split-out is the last mile.

[Ben Lobb, Conservative, Huron—Bruce, ON]

Okay, fair enough.

I have another question. In my area, Xplornet has received some grants, maybe $2 million by now, to provide Internet by, I guess you'd say, satellite. I know there are a couple of different ways to deliver this, but is Xplornet by satellite something that we can see being able to meet your target of 50 megabits per second?

[Sue Hart]

That Xplornet project is a connecting Canadians project, but it is not satellite. It is the technology we refer to as fixed wireless, so that's where you'll see towers with radio technology going to receivers on the households. That's what we called fixed wire technology.

Luc, what speeds would that reach for that project?

[Luc Delorme]

Xplornet can reach speeds of up to 25 megabits per second download through that technology for most of their clients for that project that's currently under construction.