Transport Committee on April 20th, 2021

[Angelo Iacono, Liberal, Alfred-Pellan, QC]

Thank you.

You said it well: as decision–makers, we must make changes. You say that this sector is still underfunded and that more can be done. So you agree with me in saying that, had the Harper government prioritized those investments, as the current government is doing, more Canadians, and more specifically, more Quebeckers would have access to high–speed Internet.

Is that right?

[The Chair, Liberal, Vance Badawey]

Thank you, Mr. Iacono.

Mr. Péladeau, before we go to you, I need you to raise your microphone a bit higher. It's like a moustache. What happens otherwise is that the sound pops, which hurts the interpreters' ears.

[Pierre Karl Péladeau]

Is that okay now?

[The Chair, Liberal, Vance Badawey]

That's perfect. Thank you, Mr. Péladeau.

[Pierre Karl Péladeau]

Mr. Iacono, We can only applaud the recently announced initiatives that will be implemented by the Government of Quebec in collaboration with the Government of Canada. Thanks to a significant investment, people will be able to have high–speed Internet. That will at least be the case in the areas we serve in Quebec.

We have shown in the past the undeniable robustness of our networks, and God knows that the recent pandemic has given us an opportunity to prove this once again. We would have obviously liked to do so differently, but the circumstances have been such as we know them. That said, we have shown beyond any doubt that, thanks to state policies—implemented by the current government and by previous governments—Canadians can benefit from the strongest networks. So they can inform themselves, be entertained and communicate thanks to a very strong network.

[Angelo Iacono, Liberal, Alfred-Pellan, QC]

How do investments in broadband technology help make subscriptions to a high–quality Internet service more affordable, both for individuals and for businesses in Quebec?

[Pierre Karl Péladeau]

I had an opportunity to talk about this. For me, the reason is very simple: we must ensure the existence of conditions that foster competition.

As a result of the previous monopoly, a certain number of constraints make those measures essential. I talked about poles and the CRTC's decision. That is also a task political decision–makers and regulatory authorities will have to carry out to achieve the objectives set by the federal government and the Government of Quebec. I am talking about the objectives established in the policies you announced.

[The Chair, Liberal, Vance Badawey]

Thank you, Mr. Péladeau, and Mr. Iacono.

We're now going to move on to the Bloc and Mr. Barsalou-Duval for six minutes.

[Xavier Barsalou-Duval, Bloc, Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

My first question will be for Mr. Péladeau.

I have the impression that the infamous pole quarrels and difficulties in accessing poles have been talked about for the past five, 10 or 20 years. I am no longer sure how long this has been a topic of discussion. I am still young, but I have no memory of a time when newspapers were not talking about issues with access to poles.

The actions of Bell, which has used subterfuge to try to prevent its competitors from accessing its poles, have been denounced by Rogers, Cogeco, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and the Fédération québécoise des municipalités.

Why has this situation persisted for such a long time? Can we expect the cumulative effect of pressure applied by Hydro-Québec and by the recent CRTC decision to be enough to resolve the issue of access to poles?

[Pierre Karl Péladeau]

Thank you, Mr. Barsalou-Duval.

Yes, we certainly hope so.

Bear in mind that Bell Canada is one of Videotron's competitors. The pole network in Quebec is occupied mainly by Hydro-Québec and Bell Canada. That is certainly the case in our coverage area, anyway, which stretches from Gatineau to the Lower St. Lawrence. Next would be Telus, formerly Québec Téléphone.

We had never experienced any issues, but Hydro-Québec's pole network is also quite extensive. We've always had an excellent working relationship with Hydro-Québec. How come? Simple. We don't compete with Hydro-Québec because we don't sell electricity. With Bell Canada, it's a different story. We believe one of the reasons why Bell put up all kinds of barriers was to prevent us from building our network and offering a new service at a competitive price to people who had not been able to benefit from competition.

Bell Canada was their service provider, and it had never improved or upgraded the service it was providing to those customers. When we wanted to serve them, Bell Canada blocked us from accessing the infrastructure. It's a fairly rare occurrence. As you probably know, Quebec's premier called out Bell's president in the blue room of National Assembly, urging him to do whatever was necessary to ensure high-speed Internet service was available to as many Quebeckers as possible. I think that was a wake-up call. Bell realized that it had to stop doing what it was doing. In the meantime, the CRTC saw what was happening. The CRTC has the tools to act, tools the Quebec government did not necessarily have.

Today, a coordination table has been set up. The CRTC is the watchdog, threatening to impose monetary penalties on Bell. That is what should happen. Unfortunately, a $10-million fine is like a drop in the bucket for Bell; it makes little difference to a company raking in $10 billion a year in operating profits. A $10-million fine is pretty low for slowing down the competition. The penalty should probably be stiffer.

The last thing to keep in mind is that Bell Canada is a major service provider to the federal government and the Quebec government.

[Xavier Barsalou-Duval, Bloc, Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères, QC]

Thank you.

I should point out that I had no choice but to go with Bell for my parliamentary cell phone service.

For years, remote, and even not so remote, areas have been calling for better access to high-speed Internet.

In my riding, for instance, 668 households in the Marguerite-D'Youville regional county municipality are less than 20 minutes from Montreal but still do not have high-speed Internet.

Do you think the federal government could have done something meaningful to fix the problem?

In light of the recently announced agreement between Canada and Quebec, do you think things will work out this time? Do you think the problem around Internet access will finally be solved? Is this really it? They are saying it is, but who really knows, right?

[Pierre Karl Péladeau]

Again, Mr. Barsalou-Duval, we hope so.

Given our past experience, we are hoping this will be it. To the credit of Bell's leadership, I will say that, as far as the installation of poles is concerned, the whole inventory or backlog issue appears to have been miraculously solved.

That brings to mind the old expression caveat emptor, or buyer beware. Things seem to have turned a corner, but we have to keep a very close eye on what happens next.

Again, I would point to the public interest. Today, we know full well that high-speed connectivity is essential, an unavoidable necessity. That's why we are deploying the effort and capital it takes to build a strong, high-performing network and offer services that match.

[The Chair, Liberal, Vance Badawey]

Thank you, Mr. Péladeau, and Mr. Barsalou-Duval.

We are now going to move to the NDP, with Mr. Bachrach for six minutes.

[Taylor Bachrach, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to all of our witnesses for appearing today and answering our questions on some very important topics.

My interest is predominantly in the provision of rural broadband. The region I represent in northwestern B.C. is a vast rural region. Many of the communities are extremely small and spread out and they struggle with connectivity.

I'd like to start with some questions for our delegation from Telesat.

Ms. Beck, your company was the focus of some attention in northwestern B.C. last year starting in August because a number of residents of the small rural community of Tlell on Haida Gwaii got a notice from their Internet service provider saying that their satellite Internet service was going to be ending in December. These residents had no alternatives. They had no ADSL. They had no fibre. They relied exclusively on satellite Internet.

Fortunately, after a lot of advocacy, there was an agreement struck to extend the use of your geostationary satellite with the Internet service provider Xplornet.

I wonder if you could describe that agreement for us and provide some assurance that your satellite, which we were led to believe is nearing the end of its useful life, and that agreement will get the residents of Tlell through until they have a more dependable option for rural Internet provision.

[Michele Beck]

Thank you.

The satellite that is utilized today to provide the service into the remote areas of Canada, which Xplornet utilizes, still has many years of life remaining and it will certainly be able to provide service well past 2025.

The LEO constellation Lightspeed service will have launched and will be able to provide connectivity services to many of these remote communities before the end of life, the actual official end of life, of that satellite, and there is a great optional alternative that will be able to deliver the 50/10 target service to all of these areas. We will be actively working with local ISPs and communities to ensure that the infrastructure is deployed in time and available and ready at the launch of the Lightspeed service, and we'll be able to transition off the existing satellite services and onto true broadband low-latency service using our Telesat Lightspeed constellation.

[Taylor Bachrach, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Thank you, Ms. Beck.

If I understand you correctly, the agreement you have currently with Xplornet is going to be long enough in duration to bridge those rural residents through to the introduction of your Lightspeed program and give them an alternative option.

[Michele Beck]

The satellite is certainly quite capable of bridging that. I would say the agreement we currently have with Xplornet doesn't go out that far, and it will be up to Xplornet to continue offering those services in the interim.

[Taylor Bachrach, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Thanks for that answer.

I will turn now to your Lightspeed project, which you've described for us, the low-earth orbiting satellites. The federal government recently announced $600 million to improve coverage in Canada's remote regions. What is your company planning to do with this funding to improve connectivity?

[Michele Beck]

The partnership we have with the federal government doesn't provide for funding. It really is a commitment for capacity, and the objective is to deploy that capacity in some of the most remote and rural areas of Canada to effectively provide a cost-effective backhaul connectivity. We will be working with local ISPs, which will deliver Internet, that last-mile connectivity, to homes, schools, hospitals, and small businesses in these underserved communities today.

[Taylor Bachrach, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Okay, so essentially, if I understand you correctly, the federal government is purchasing capacity on your network, and will then provide that to local ISPs so that rural people can achieve greater connectivity.

[Michele Beck]

Essentially, yes. It's a commitment essentially for capacity, and we are currently working with a number of ISPs to bring that connectivity to these underserved communities.

[Taylor Bachrach, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Okay.

[The Chair, Liberal, Vance Badawey]

Thank you, Ms. Beck, and Mr. Bachrach.

We're now going to move to our second round of questions, starting with the Conservatives and Mrs. Kusie for five minutes.

[Stephanie Kusie, Conservative, Calgary Midnapore, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to the witnesses for being here today.

Mr. Field, I'm really taken aback by some of the comments of our new government representative.

Welcome, it's very nice to have a new member here on the committee, but I would like to point out that the Canada Infrastructure Bank, on which we have had numerous meetings—and of course we have had the minister here previously and look forward to welcoming her again this week—they have yet to fund a single broadband project. In fact, the Auditor General—whom we had here last week, and who informed us unfortunately about the dismal performance of the government on rail safety—also indicated that this government is not even tracking its own programs to its targets. They can't even know if they are achieving them if they are not tracking them effectively.

I am going to start, Mr. Field, by asking why are there so many funding envelopes? I ask because I know it's difficult for me to keep track of the different funding sources in an effort to achieve these rural projects you've talked about. How does having so many envelopes prevent getting the job done?

[Barry Field]

Thank you.

Again, I think the problem with having these multiple envelopes all searching to solve the same problem in the same geographical area is that you get overlap of responsibility. Also, by the very nature of having these multiple programs, there isn't a single entity that is responsible for solving the entire problem.

I think what we saw happen in Quebec a couple of weeks ago is encouraging. The federal government has provided funding directly to the Government of Quebec in an attempt to.... I believe their target is to have 98% of the population served. Don't quote me on that number.

I think programs like that make a whole lot of sense to me, but, again, having multiple entities all trying to solve a bit of the problem in the same jurisdiction is extremely inefficient. It's not effective in solving the whole problem and it leads to a lot of overlap and duplication of effort.