Industry committee  Thank you very much, Ray. In Canada's north, many communities simply cannot participate in Canada's digital economy because they are unable to connect to reliable high-speed Internet. Northern and remote communities face frequent outages and technical problems without a backup c

Industry committee  Our challenges are a little distinct in that we have a significant backbone connectivity issue and it's not a matter of the last mile. As well, there are many fewer opportunities for municipal governments to participate. Our communities are so tiny that their capacity is very muc

Industry committee  Some solutions have been discussed, and I know that with adequate funding they would be feasible. As it stands right now, though, there will probably never be a business case for affordable Internet-type services in our communities. That's part of the challenge.

Industry committee  The distances are great, and microwave wouldn't be feasible for most locations in the territories.

Industry committee  Thanks very much. It's not so much a percentage as it is.... We do have coverage in most communities. We don't have the same rural base in most communities, but the speeds are so slow that it makes it almost impossible to participate using Internet for health, education, and tho

Industry committee  Do you remember dial-up?

Industry committee  That's what we're looking at.

Industry committee  No. There are some on dial-up, but even when you're not on dial-up, you're still looking at significantly slow speeds. You can't stream. Often video conferencing is a real challenge. The delays with the satellite links just complicate that.

Industry committee  Ten of our 33 communities are still on satellite service. They would be the slowest. From a percentage perspective, it's not as high. Yellowknife, for example, is over half of the population of the NWT. Percentage-wise it doesn't speak to it as well.

Industry committee  Absolutely. We'd like to think so.

Industry committee  Certainly with northern and remote communities being so isolated, you would be relying on it so much more and would be able to participate so much more if you had it. It is bordering on a right, for sure.

Industry committee  I'm not sure.

Industry committee  We have one service provider for most of the territories, with another smaller group as well in Nunavut and part of the N.W.T. I'm not sure exactly where the threshold is, but it does require significant subsidies to even deliver a land line type of phone service. This is not a p

Industry committee  Yes, that's correct. We are almost exclusively diesel, and there is some hydro in the southern part of the territories.

Industry committee  Our emphasis is definitely on backbone. We don't even have the speeds coming into the community, let alone being able to participate. Until that backbone is addressed, the last mile is irrelevant.