Transport Committee on May 28th, 2015

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

Before Stats Canada's long-form census was eliminated by the government—something they pursued here after George W. Bush tried to do it in Washington and then had to withdraw it because of the outcry—in 2010 they did an Internet use survey and here's what it told us.

It said that 79% of Canadian households had Internet connections. It said that 97% of the top income households had them but only 54% of low-income households had them, that is $30,000 or less.

Your school program has no bearing at all on the millions of Canadians who live in households with $30,000 or less. The program was eliminated with the stroke of a pen. It was all about trying to help folks who couldn't afford computers or high-speed connections deal with, for example, CRA tax forms. In fact, hundreds of thousands of Canadians were going to those municipal centres and those libraries to get help filing their taxes, which creates revenue for the government and helps with the efficiency of CRA.

Can you help us understand why a $10 million or $12 million a year program—which is one-third of the cost of the billboards put up by the government across the country—was eliminated? Do we have any rationale for this other than the fact that you say the Internet connections are now in schools?

[Corinne Charette]

The connecting Canadians program is in fact targeting households that are underserved. By the end of this program when it's fully deployed, over 98% of Canadian households, including those in rural and remote areas, will have access to speeds of 3 to 5 megabits per second download and 1.5 megabits per second upload.

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

If they can afford it....

[Corinne Charette]

The applicants to these programs have to submit business cases. They're commercial enterprises and they come to us for these contributions, but at the end of the day they also have to propose their pricing, and the pricing for these services is competitive within these regions for the service.

We feel it is reaching that target.

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

I'll go to question number two if I could, and that is about how in September of 2013 Mr. Moore, from the industry department, spent millions and millions of dollars of taxpayers' money attacking BCE, TELUS, and Rogers. It was unprecedented in Canadian history. No federal government had ever taken out ads on television, radio, and print to attack one of its leading industrial sectors. In fact, it led the former Conservative premier of New Brunswick, Mr. Chair—

[Peter Braid, Conservative, Kitchener—Waterloo, ON]

On a point of order, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Mr. Braid.

[Peter Braid, Conservative, Kitchener—Waterloo, ON]

I'm just seeking clarification, Mr. Chair, and trying to understand if Mr. McGuinty's line of questioning at all, including this most recent one, has anything to do with infrastructure and the scope of our study?

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Try to stick to the topic, Mr. McGuinty.

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

It's up to you, Mr. Chair, whether you want me to answer the question for Mr. Braid so I can explain to him how this is connected. Or would you like me to continue with my questions?

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

If you can explain how it's connected quickly, I guess you have that prerogative.

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

Absolutely, as long as the clock has stopped.

The government can't waltz in here and claim that it's working with partners in the private sector and expect to have increased broadband access, if only two years ago it ran millions of dollars of attack ads, attacking the very companies it says it's now partnering with. That has a bearing on—

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

We're talking about infrastructure, not attack ads.

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

I didn't bring these witnesses in, Mr. Chair. These are not my witnesses.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

It's got nothing—

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

These witnesses were brought in with respect to broadband Internet access, that's infrastructure.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

It's got nothing to do with ads that were two years ago. Stick to the subject and—

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

It has everything to do with the ads from two years ago.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Look, you have some time, two minutes and six seconds, so use it wisely.

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

I want to go back and ask the question about what bearing the attack ads that were run—which led former Conservative Premier Bernard Lord to chide, chastise, and to criticize his own party in government—had on the partnerships you want to foster with these companies that were attacked? That's question number one.

As well, and most importantly, how much broadband could have been paid for using the resources they spent attacking our three top companies?

[Corinne Charette]

I would say that Industry Canada continues to maintain excellent partnerships with all of the telecommunications providers in the country, large and small alike. We spend a lot of time with each of them understanding their long-term evolution plans and how they go to market and so on.

I would also add that in the connecting Canadians program we did receive over 300 applications and they included applications from both large incumbents as well as smaller players, so I think we maintain good relationships with these companies.

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

Thank you for that. That's good to hear. I'm glad the relationships are recovering after being attacked all over national television by this sitting government.

I want to ask what the costs are. It is your spectrum, information technologies, and telecommunication division that oversees this, so can you provide that for this committee? Can you tell us how much money was spent on this advertising and how much it would have helped? Give us a real comparable or comparative here. How could this money have been used to provide more broadband across Canada? More particularly, because the government won't give us the answer but I'm sure you have it, how much was spent—

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Your time is up—

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

How much was spent on the ads?

[Corinne Charette]

We don't have this information at hand. I will take it back to the department to see if there is something we can provide, but it's not something we track.