Nunavut, Nunavik deprived of basic telecoms, CRTC review hears

Joseph Manoll, project manager of operations at the Government of Nunavut, speaks to CRTC hearing on basic telecommunications services April 12. (CPAC IMAGE)

In communities throughout Nunavik and Nunavut, telecommunications is a vital link to the rest of the world.

But those communications — particularly internet access — remain expensive, slow and unreliable.

That’s what northern governments and organization told the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission April 11 during the first day of its review of basic telecom services in Gatineau, Que.

“For us, [telecommunications] is the difference between being remote and being isolated,” Jean-François Dumoulin, with the Kativik Regional Government-operated Tamaani Internet, told the hearings April 11.

“But like all infrastructure in the Arctic, it remains fragile, extremely costly and difficult to operate.”

The CRTC first examined basic telecommunications services in Canada in 1999, and again in 2011.

Following its last review, the commission set a target of download speeds of five Mbps to be made accessible across the country by the end of 2015.

But in 2016, many communities in the Canadian Arctic are still far from seeing that level of service.

For that reason, organizations in satellite-dependent Nunavik and Nunavut have called for broadband internet access, or high-speed internet, to be included in the definition of basic telecommunications services under the CRTC’s mandate.

“The North needs fibre,” the Nunavut Broadband Development Corp. said in its submission to the review April 12, referring to the newest in broadband technology, fibre optic cable.

“Without a series effort to address the digital divide — urban and rural, rich and poor, indigenous and non-indigenous — the benefits of broadband will be largely reserved for the privileged,” the corporation said.

The CRTC’s chair Jean-Pierre Blais told presenters that the CRTC plans to use the hearing to decide what level of telecoms services should be deemed as “basic services” — ones that Canadians should be expected to and able to receive.

In a submission prepared by the Government of Nunavut, the territory calls on the CRTC to support the means to deliver broadband to all communities in the territory by 2019.

“As part of [this review], the commission needs to ensure Internet services are available to all consumers across Nunavut, regardless of their geographic location,” the GN said in its April 12 submission.

“Remote isolation cannot be used as a justification for governments, businesses nor individuals being unable to access a service that is vital in today’s digital economy and that in turn provides access to other services, such as health care, education, government, publish safety and banking.”

The GN said it hopes to see the federal government deliver capital infrastructure investment into transport facilities such as fibre, microwave and satellite in all its regions, as well as the cost of maintaining those facilities.

The CRTC will hear from the Qikiqtaaluk Corp. and Xplornet Communiations Inc. April 13. The hearings run until April 28.