Thank you.
Good morning.
I'd like to begin by thanking the standing committee for the invitation to participate in your study on broadband connectivity.
My name is Ray Orb, and I am the chair of the rural forum at the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and also president of the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities.
I will be joined today by Sara Brown, chief executive officer of the Northwest Territories Association of Communities.
The Federation of Canadian Municipalities is the national voice of municipal government in Canada. Our member municipalities, nearly 2,000 of them, come from every corner of Canada and represent 91% of Canadians. Our members include Canada's largest cities, as well as small, urban, and rural communities, and 20 provincial and territorial municipal associations.
FCM works on behalf of municipal governments to bring local solutions to national challenges and to empower communities of all sizes to build a more prosperous, livable, and sustainable Canada.
FCM has long advocated for increased federal involvement in developing the telecommunications infrastructure that is critical to the social, cultural, and economic vibrancy of Canada's rural, northern, and remote communities. We brought the municipal perspective to a number of federal consultations on telecommunications services, including spectrum allocation and the development of federal broadband funding programs such as Connecting Canadians and Connect to Innovate.
On behalf of our members, FCM worked closely with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to shape their definition of basic telecommunications services, so we were pleased with the CRTC's announcement last year of a universal service objective which determined that all Canadians should have access to broadband Internet on fixed and mobile networks.
FCM also welcomed the federal government's announcement in 2016 that their new broadband program, Connect to Innovate, would invest up to $500 million to bring high-speed Internet service to rural and remote communities. Too many of our rural and remote communities lack basic access to the broadband services that so many Canadians take for granted, access that is vital for modern commerce and education. Mandating universal access as well as programs like Connect to Innovate will help change that.
However, in order to ensure the universal service objective of the CRTC is a success, funding programs from the federal government must be long term and predictable. Only through this sort of funding will project proponents be able to make long-term decisions about technology as well as the rollout of services and service packages.
The fact is that no two communities are the same, so different technologies will be required for accessing affordable and reliable broadband services. That's why FCM supports flexibility in defining eligible broadband infrastructure in federal funding programs. Both backbone and last-mile components of broadband infrastructure are necessary elements if we hope to reach the goal of universal access. If funding programs only allow last-mile projects, many rural communities without modern backbone infrastructure will simply be left behind.
FCM believes that each of these pieces is important to the development of successful broadband services. It's so important that any federal funding program for broadband infrastructure prioritizes the hardest-to-serve underserved areas. Simply put, broadband Internet access has become fundamental to modern life and has the power to transform rural and northern Canada.
Modern networks contribute to economic growth by improving productivity, providing new services, supporting innovation, and improving market access. They give Canadians the capacity to collaborate, work, share, and learn. Unfortunately, the broadband gap is a reality in underserved communities. Too many Canadians are without broadband coverage, while others remain underserved by insufficient bandwidth and insufficient network capacity to meet user demand.
Under Canada's current approach to broadband policy, there is a significant lag in bringing the broadband speeds and technologies that are widely available in urban areas to Canadians in rural and remote regions. Any federal plan to improve rural connectivity must take this into account.
FCM also believes that a lack of broadband adoption on the part of Canadians is due, to some degree, to the issue of cost. That is why any federal plan must make affordability a priority.
Now I'd like to turn it over to my colleague Sara Brown to tell you about the challenges that Canada's northern and remote communities face in accessing broadband services.