Madam Speaker, last week, I had the opportunity to ask a question of the minister on rural broadband. I asked her specifically to not give an answer about who installed more or invested more money in broadband, whether it was the Liberal government, former Prime Minister Harper or Sir John A. Macdonald. The minister proceeded to tell me that the government had invested more money than former prime minister Stephen Harper did and did not provide an answer to the question.
I put that answer out to my constituents and asked if this was an answer they felt addressed their issues and concerns. Unsurprisingly, the result was a resounding no. Residents in my riding are fed up with the lack of affordable and reliable Internet, and they got back to me in droves. I am going to share a couple comments I received.
I received a comment from Jim, who said, “We use Rogers Rocket hub and as now with COVID, I work from home and my daughter has come to live with us from the city. Our monthly bills have topped $700 a month. It is completely unacceptable.”
Marianne writes, “We also have a Rogers hub. It gobbles up the data and at this point we actually had a bill of $400 in one month. This is when our grandchildren came to stay with us and they were trying to do school work from home.”
Leanne writes that she chose to send her children back to school because she knew they did not have reliable and affordable Internet at home. Her concern is, “I have sent my children back to school where they could be exposed to COVID because we do not have reliable Internet at home and the cost is astronomical.”
Charles talks about how for years he contended with a $300 monthly bill. He asked why the government could not invest to fix this. He has children in Ottawa who pay less than one-third of that price and get high-speed Internet.
Lai says in her email, “Pardon my language,” so I am going to pardon her language as I read this. She says, “Internet in Mansfield sucks. I cannot get any providers that give me more than 5 Mbps or sometimes 6 Mbps with a DSL connection. Are we living in the stone age in Mansfield?”
This is what is going on in my riding every day. The Internet is unreliable and unaffordable. My constituents are tired of glib answers like, “Well, we invested more than the previous government did” and “Wait, maybe something exciting is coming down the pike.”
They need answers now. They need affordable Internet now. When are they actually going to be connected to reliable, affordable broadband?