Thank you.
Mr. Chair, and honourable committee members, my name is Barry Field. I’m the executive director of Southwestern Integrated Fibre Technology, commonly referred to as SWIFT. SWIFT is a non-profit regional broadband program. Our mandate is to eliminate the digital divide within southwestern Ontario.
Thank you for this opportunity to participate in your important deliberations. SWIFT has recently completed the procurement phase of our first program called SWIFT 1.0. The program is funded equally by the governments of Canada and Ontario, each contributing $64 million. SWIFT is grateful for these contributions and works diligently to ensure that these public funds are spent in the most effective, efficient and equitable way possible.
The primary goal of the SWIFT program is to provide broadband services to 50,000 underserved premises within the SWIFT catchment area, on or before June 2023. Secondary goals include ensuring 3,100 kilometres of new fibre construction and $65.5 million of private sector investment in the form of contributions from the Internet service providers, or ISPs.
Upon the conclusion of the procurement phase of our program, SWIFT has exceeded all of these targets, and is currently working with the ISPs to implement these important projects. The SWIFT 1.0 program has exceeded the premises target by 27%, the fibre construction target by 37% and the private sector investment target by 98%.
It’s important to note that the digital divide in Canada exists for one simple reason—there's a general market failure in this space. The high cost of implementing fast, reliable broadband infrastructure in rural areas with low population density is not offset by the requisite revenues that would make the investment profitable. Simply put, the ISPs have no profit motive to invest in these areas. There is a patchwork of non-profit co-operatives that do an incredible job of addressing rural broadband service gaps, but they are generally small and localized operations, not in a position to address such issues on a national scale. This is where the government must step in.
Subsidy programs targeted to reduce the cost of implementing and, in some cases, maintaining broadband infrastructure are necessary. The federal, provincial and municipal levels of government across the country get this.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, I spent a lot of time talking to policymakers about why broadband is important. Since the pandemic, this conversation has shifted away from why it is needed to how much it’s going to cost and what's the most efficient and effective means of solving it.
Recently, the Province of Ontario announced an additional $2.8 billion worth of broadband funding. This brings their total current broadband commitment to $3.8 billion. Yesterday, in the federal budget, we learned that the federal government has committed an additional $1 billion to the universal broadband fund. This is above and beyond the $1.75 billion already committed in the UBF, and is in addition to other federal programs.
Municipal governments across the county have also answered the call with their own local commitments. Here in southwestern Ontario, the member municipalities of SWIFT have contributed $24 million to date and are committed to future funding currently under consideration. Again, all levels of government understand the need and the financial commitment required to resolve this issue, but what's missing is a co-ordinated approach, at the local level, to address this problem.
I recently argued in front of the industry committee that one size does not fit all when it comes to broadband programs. What I meant by that was that there are regional differences in requirements, current state, and implementation realities that all come into play with respect to broadband. Effective programs need to take into account local requirements and differences.
Also, the current patchwork of broadband programs, all trying to solve a small piece of the problem, is not the most effective or efficient means to address the digital divide. Within southwestern Ontario today, there are no less than five active government programs, all trying to solve the same problem in the same geography.