Industry Committee on Feb. 6th, 2018

[James Maunder]

Xplornet has a considerable amount of experience working with governments at all levels on infrastructure projects. A good example is a project that Mr. Bossio would be quite familiar with, and that's our relationship with the Eastern Ontario Regional Network, EORN.

They brand themselves as a novel partnership, and it really is novel in the sense that mayors from the region of eastern Ontario circa 2010 felt that there was a real lack of broadband infrastructure in their part of the province and they banded together. They solicited funding from the federal government. They worked with a number of Internet service providers, Xplornet being one of them, to construct the last-mile infrastructure in the region. My colleague C.J. can speak to some of the details in terms of the number of towers that Xplornet built. It predates my time at the company.

Xplornet was a partner of EORN. Five years later, EORN has a built network, has transferred the ownership of those assets to Xplornet. To this day, Xplornet continues to work with EORN, providing rural broadband service to residents in the region.

[Dane Lloyd, Conservative, Sturgeon River—Parkland, AB]

Mr. Proctor, can you describe the impact of accessibility to broadband in northern communities, such as Nunavut? How is this impacting people's lives?

[Dean Proctor]

That's a wonderful question. I should almost bring Adamee up to answer it.

Imagine a world where school doesn't go far enough. Often kids have to be sent away to finish high school. In a world where there are no banks, no bricks and mortar, in a world where.... As a friend of mine described it, we're not dealing with a remote area, we're dealing with isolation. This breaks down the barriers. These are the roads that cannot be built to these areas. The communication system is, in fact, the way out. It's the way to communicate, to have contact with the rest of the world. It's a way to complete education, to continue education. It's a way to sell as well as to buy merchandise online. It's a way to carry on banking and government services, and it's—something that I'm sure this entire committee is concerned about—digital democracy. It's really been earth-changing.

I saw all this come through back when we were launching broadband 10 or 15 years ago, but we're seeing it again now with the mobile. In each one of the communities, we go through business readiness testing. We have friendly users making sure the network works. Everybody has an obligation to fill out survey reports.

Some of the stories coming in make you want to cry—they really do—just in terms of the joy and the open feeling that people are receiving from having technology. They know full well it exists, they just don't have access to it. A lot of our friendly users already have their own iPhone and they use it when they're down south. We don't have to give them phones; we just give them a SIM card. The thrill that comes out of that is earth changing. It really is. It makes us feel very good to be able to do it.

[Dane Lloyd, Conservative, Sturgeon River—Parkland, AB]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

We're going to move to Mr. Baylis.

You have five minutes.

[Frank Baylis, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

Thank you, Chair.

I'd like to focus a bit more on how we can help the small companies compete, if I understand it, on two fronts. First of all is funding. It has been alluded to that the government is making one program, and the expectation of that program is so heavy that it works great for these big deals, but when it comes down to little chunks, it's a lot of paperwork or it's too complex.

Am I understanding that right? I think both you, Mr. Proctor, and you, Mr. Stevens, spoke about that.

I'll start with you, Mr. Proctor.

[Dean Proctor]

I would echo the concerns over the amount of paperwork. At the same time, I profoundly believe that a recipient of funding needs to disclose what that funding is being used for. I might go a little further and say that it's one thing to report, but it's another thing to make sure those reports are made publicly available. We may need to do a little more on that one. I know that's not what you're looking at on that, but reporting is a necessary requirement for public funding.

I would be much more concerned about what I call a bait and switch. If somebody receives funding to build out an open-access, “available on a wholesale”, backbone network, and then decides they don't want to open it up or they're going to make it too difficult to open up, that's what I'd be worried about.

[Frank Baylis, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

Has that happened?

[Dean Proctor]

I certainly hope not.

We are concerned that parties are receiving funding under connect to innovate—

[Frank Baylis, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

That may or may not open up the backbone.

[Dean Proctor]

That may or may not open up the backbone.

[Frank Baylis, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

Let's get back to this question.

Mr. Stevens, it's one thing if I have a ton of paperwork and I'm going to get $100 million, but if I have a ton of paperwork and I'm going to get $1,000, somewhere the math doesn't add up.

Is the government putting out programs that are too paper-heavy for small companies to get proper funding?

[Ian Stevens]

I think the connect to innovate program, as Mr. Proctor alluded to, is fairly well balanced in terms of the reporting requirements. When you're getting big funding, it's nice to know that taxpayer dollars are being nicely shepherded.

There's a business case point; it's probably around $75,000 to $100,000. If the totality of all your projects is smaller than that, then it probably doesn't make sense.

[Frank Baylis, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

But is it enough for the small people to get involved? That's what I'm asking.

Is it a barrier, or is it fair? Is it balanced right now?

[Jay Thomson]

It has definitely been a barrier—

[Frank Baylis, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

In the past.

[Jay Thomson]

—for a number of our members to get to participate in connect to innovate. The paperwork was too complex, and they would have had to hire an outside consultant.

[Frank Baylis, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

There are very small companies that just don't have the....

If we're looking for solutions and we want small companies to go after small areas, we need to make sure we make it easy for them to get on board.

[Jay Thomson]

That's our message, yes.

[Frank Baylis, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

I want to take the same line of thought now to the topic of spectrum.

I'll start with you, C.J.

I understand that the size of the spectrum when it's being sold covers too much. Let's say it encapsulates much more than I need. I can't afford to buy this whole area, and I'm not interested in serving this whole area. Someone else buys it that might have a great city involved, but then all the rest....

Would a solution be to sell spectrum off in smaller chunks, and/or could you also elaborate on the entry price, please?

[Christine J. Prudham]

There are some great examples from various ridings represented around this table. One that always springs to mind is Beach Corner near Edmonton. Calgary is another example, and the Toronto licence is a great example.

When you look at a Calgary licence, for example, you'll see that it goes all the way to the B.C. border. It's not really Calgary; it's everything to the west of Calgary, all the way to the border. The Toronto licence goes well beyond and covers the entire green space that surrounds that area.

[Frank Baylis, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

Calgary is a great example. So, I want Calgary. I'm a big player. I buy Calgary and it costs a ton of money. I'm busy with Calgary for the rest of the time, and I don't care anything about going west of the border.

[Christine J. Prudham]

Such as Jasper, Olds, etc.

[Frank Baylis, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

Whereas, your company or someone else may say that little bit is interesting to them, but they can't get it because it's been sold.

[Christine J. Prudham]

Exactly.