Slow going for high-speed internet drags North down By: Carol Sanders Posted: 7:01 PM CDT Thursday, May. 4, 2023 Last Modified: 8:19 AM CDT Friday, May. 5, 2023 Updates

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Manitoba ranks second-last in Canada in the number of households with high-speed internet access, despite the advantage of a publicly owned fibre optic backbone running the length of the province.

Cities and less-remote areas are well-connected but rural broadband expansion ground to a halt in 2020, when Manitoba Hydro Telecom ordered a stop to contracts connecting communities to its dark fibre network while issuing a request for proposal for a major contractor to step in and manage it.

Ever since, it’s been slow going for “last-mile” links to places that limp along with low-speed internet service.

In December 2021, Chemawawin Cree Nation Chief Clarence Easter attended a Manitoba government news conference where Xplornet Communications (now Xplore Inc.) announced plans to spend $200 million connecting remote and northern communities to high-speed internet.

“This is going to produce life-altering change (for) our community,” Easter told reporters at the time.

His community of some 2,100 members, located 470 kilometres north of Winnipeg, had invested about $1.8 million in 2020 toward connecting to the dark fibre network.

It had been waiting since then to be able to complete the connection. It didn’t happen.

“We still don’t have it,” Easter said in an interview Wednesday. “They agreed they would hook us up as soon as they can.

“The whole process, to me, is frustrating.”

Manitoba Hydro’s underused fibre-optic network spans thousands of kilometres and was created to communicate with northern hydroelectric facilities and transmit data.

“The service is definitely needed in the North, it’s essential,” Easter said. “It should be a basic thing for all Manitobans, actually. Everything is based on it — your health, your banking, how you get paid, how you watch a movie. Everything is internet now.”

In 2020, the federal government rolled out a $3.2-billion universal broadband fund to provide 100 per cent of Canadians by 2030, with access to the internet at a minimum 50/10 megabits per second (Mbps) speed, which supports large file downloads or transfers and can connect 10-15 devices at once.

So far, 93 per cent of Canadian households have that access, according to an online dashboard tracking its progress.

At the end of 2022, 83 per cent of Manitoba households had access to 50/10 service.

Newfoundland and Labrador are last among provinces with 77 per cent of households having high-speed internet access.

SaskTel spokesman Greg Jacobs said Thursday 86 per cent of households in Saskatchewan had such access, disputing the federal dashboard that pegged it at 81 per cent.

“We still don’t have it. They agreed they would hook us up as soon as they can… The whole process, to me, is frustrating.”–Chemawawin Cree Nation Chief Clarence Easter

SaskTel, a Saskatchewan Crown corporation, says 99 per cent of households have broadband available.

When asked to confirm what percentage of households in Manitoba had access to 50/10 service in 2022, a provincial government spokesperson said the province doesn’t track that kind of data.

The federal dashboard estimates 89 per cent of Manitoba households would have broadband by the end of this year.

That target may be harder to reach since broadband expansion ground to a halt in mid-February over a pay dispute between Xplore and Manitoba Hydro Telecom. On Thursday, neither side was able to say when asked if the dispute had been resolved.

Easter, whose First Nation is next to the community of Easterville, blames “bureaucracy and red tape” for the lack of the connectivity.

“Some people, who can afford it, have Starlink,” said the chief, referring to the satellite internet service operated by SpaceX. “I will wait for the cable.”

Rural and northern Manitobans shouldn’t have to rely on satellites, NDP MP Niki Ashton said from Thompson.

“The real question is: how is it that we are a hydro-rich province where we know that the infrastructure is in place to hook up our communities to high-speed fibre optic… and Manitobans themselves can’t connect to these networks?” said Ashton (Churchill—Keewatinook).

The Progressive Conservative government isn’t acting to ensure remote and northern communities aren’t being left behind, said NDP MLA Ian Bushie (Keewatinook).

“The federal government has stepped up and there’s dollars available, the infrastructure is available, but the desire is not there to get that done.”

Gaps in learning for children could be bridged with decent internet access, and everything from remotely accessing primary care to communications during fire season depend on connectivity, said the resident of Hollow Water First Nation, which has no cellphone service.

The MLA paid $800 to connect to Starlink two years ago, and pays more than $150 a month for the satellite internet service. Many in the Keewatinook district can’t afford that, he said. “A lot of people get left by the wayside.”

The Manitoba government, however, says it is taking steps to close the telecommunication gap for rural, remote and Indigenous communities by making Manitoba Hydro assets available to telecommunications companies.

In a statement Monday, Consumer Protection and Government Services Minister James Teitsma said the contribution agreement with Xplore was to connect more than 651 under-served communities in Manitoba to high-speed Internet over a three-year period.

The rollout is ahead of schedule, with 418 communities now connected. Of 23 First Nations on the to-do list, 13 have been connected, the minister’s statement said.

The province accused the federal government of underspending, distributing just $891 million of $2.14 billion allotted to do the job for companies and municipalities.

“Reliable connectivity is critically important for the economic success, well-being and safety of Manitobans, particularly for individuals and businesses now that working remotely is more prevalent,” Teitsma’s statement said.

The Chemawawin chief has known that, and been waiting for it, for years.

Easter said he’s been given the go-ahead by Manitoba Hydro to connect to its fibre optic network once the ground thaws and the First Nation can dig the final four km of trench needed.

The work could be completed by June, he said. “I haven’t given up.”

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca