Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The cost for fibre per kilometre is a tough one to answer. It ranges. We have some low precedents in areas along railways that we can trench. When you work in the High Arctic, it's really quite costly. I can provide the committee with that off-line. In terms of upgrades to satellites, typically satellites are designed so that they are not upgradeable.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Typically a microwave investment made for a mine might be 10 or 15 years in duration. The diamond field microwave length that we have north of Yellowknife is constructed with a 15- to 20-year life. Once the mines go under remediation and start shutting down, we'd remove those towers and bring the land back to its original state.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Typically there are not. On the diamond mines themselves, there is really no population of consequence leading out to those mines. The Victoria Gold example in the Yukon is basically a spur off a community link that we have, so there is really not much benefit to the mass market population.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Absolutely. It catches the general economic growth.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes, that's correct.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Not yet; it's forward looking. The carbon tax impacts two facets of our business. One is obviously the cost to generate power at our prime power sites where we're consuming diesel, and obviously commercial power that we purchase. The third thing in the north would be really the cost to our employees, the cost of living.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Generally, the company has grown kind of in parallel with northern economic growth. In some years it's been growing faster in previous areas, such as Yukon, for example. In Nunavut, we're investing quite heavily right now. We are seeing growth on the horizon for the next three or four years, but obviously in the telecommunications industry there are competitive pressures and new entrants, such as LEO satellite, so the landscape will shift quite dramatically over the next five or six years.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We're in discussions with a couple of providers today about the potential. We're not directly investing in that market. It may be something we partner with, or we might work out a supply arrangement in the future.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  A number of years ago, the Government of the Northwest Territories went through a P3 tender process to build a fibre line from the southern part of the Northwest Territories up to Inuvik, which is north of the Arctic Circle. There were a couple of things the government wanted to do.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  From a wholesale standpoint, we have companies like Telus, we have AllStream, we have SSi Micro and we have Iristel. We've got big national global players that are serving banks and government departments. Then we have smaller wholesalers that are serving more regional interests in the north.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Typically, if you look at our revenue base, you'll see it's one-third residential, one-third government business, and then one-third wholesale. That is generally how our revenue is structured. When we look at a business case, we look at all the revenue potential. We look at the capital costs and the ongoing costs for maintenance in the investments.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The resource sector is interesting. The mining industry, predominantly, is satellite based. We've provided a diamond field microwave service to the diamond mines outside of Yellowknife. The resource industry does peak at times. Obviously, we had northern B.C. with shale gas that we ran a number of microwave links into.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I think generally that a lot of the funding that we see gets matched by the territorial government and essentially the private sector. I think we look for programs in the private sector in the telecommunications area where we can get territorial government funding and then also have private sector capital that goes into a project.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It's all good.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. Northwestel appreciates the opportunity to speak to you here this afternoon as part of your study on northern infrastructure projects and strategies. We are very hopeful that this will result in initiatives that continue to improve the quality of life and economic prosperity for the residents of Canada's north.