Thank you for having us at this committee hearing.
My name is Ray Noyes and I live in Ottawa. I've been a member of ACORN Canada for the last nine years.
ACORN is a grassroots community organization that has been fighting on a range of issues that affect low- and moderate-income people. Ensuring that everyone has access to the Internet has been among our core campaigns.
We have 32,000 members in the Ottawa area, and more than 140,000 members across the country.
I must begin by saying that even to appear before this committee has been a challenge. The Ottawa ACORN staff has gone to heroic levels to get me connected today, and spent hours working on it and drove me here to the ACORN office, whereas an affluent person could just turn on their computer and get on in seconds. Therefore, I think this illustrates the point.
I've been invited to a number of Zoom meetings, but I cannot be seen or see anyone. I've also been interviewed multiple times where I've shared my personal experience and what it means to be without the Internet, particularly during the pandemic.
I'm a disabled person who lives on the Ontario disability support program, with an income of $1,169, which is well below the poverty line. As you all know, the federal government, in instituting the CERB, considered $2,000 as a living income, and the ODSP rate is far below that. I'll be turning 65 and will be off ODSP, which means I will see my income go up slightly, but it will still be below the poverty line.
ACORN did a study in 2019 and found out that many low-income Canadians found themselves in the difficult position of deciding whether to pay for home Internet or pay for basic necessities such as food, clothing or transit. A quarter of them told us they had sacrificed food in order to pay for Internet services, and almost one third have made multiple sacrifices.
I listen to CBC Radio and I have three to four TV channels through a digital antenna, but it's extremely frustrating to hear all the time on the radio and TV how important it is for anyone not to feel isolated, to have access to health information, information about the virus itself and mental health supports that are available, yet I am here with no Internet.
Until recently, we'd been asking the federal government to work with telecoms and provide $10-a-month Internet to all low-income people and seniors on fixed incomes, but the government hasn't heard us. We know that it's possible. We won the connecting families program, which I notice has been mentioned, but that program needs to be expanded to cover all low-income people and the Internet speed needs to be enhanced to 50/10, something that the CRTC itself recommends.
Recently, the U.S. has set a precedent by providing $50 a month off Internet bills to all low-income people during the pandemic. The aim of the U.S. benefit is to connect low-income households to broadband networks at affordable rates. Broadband providers will be reimbursed up to $50 per month per low-income household, and at $75 per month if the household is on tribal land. It's a time-limited fund that extends for six months after the COVID emergency ends. It's important to note that this is additional money on top of existing affordability and accessibility funds to help low-income people, called “lifeline”.
We are demanding that the Canadian federal government immediately create a $50-a-month Canadian broadband benefit, or CBB, during the remainder of the COVID-19 emergency. The CBB should be extended to all low-income Canadians, fixed-income seniors and those Canadians with job or income loss due to COVID-19. However, this must be done urgently, not in five or 10, or even two years. We need the Internet now.
We met with the then Minister of Innovation in 2017 and he announced on that day that the Internet was a right. It's past time to make this a reality.
The Canada broadband benefit must be instituted as soon as possible and backdated to January 1, 2021, and run to six months after the official declarations of pandemic emergency have been revoked, in part to make up for full ISP pricing for those months from July to December during the pandemic. A lot of existing relief and support programs could be leveraged to determine the eligibility of people.
I want to end by saying that if I had access to the Internet I would have been able to see my family during the pandemic. I would have been able to attend more ACORN meetings on video, which are important to me, access mental health support, get broad access to general health information and see my doctor's face.
Thank you once again for having us today.