Manitobans deserve real communication on rural internet, cell service dispute By: Dan Lett Posted: 1:54 PM CDT Friday, Apr. 28, 2023 Last Modified: 2:43 PM CDT Friday, Apr. 28, 2023 Updates

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/04/2023 (862 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Three years ago, when the Progressive Conservative government unveiled a plan to give private internet companies access to a $1 billion, 3,200-kilometre fibre optic cable network built by Manitoba Hydro, we were told it would herald a new era of broadband service for remote and rural communities.

“Province shining a light on dark fibre for rural broadband services,” thundered the headline of a May 2020 government news release announcing it was seeking private-sector partners to use Hydro’s fibre optic cable — referred to as “dark fibre” because so little of it was being used — to extend broadband across the province.

After a lengthy RFP process, the Tories decided to go with Xplore Inc. (formerly Xplornet Communications) to connect more than 125,000 customers to high-speed internet service.

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Rural communities, First Nations getting hooked up

Xplore promised to invest $200 million of its own money to connect 350 rural communities and 30 First Nations to the Hydro network, which was originally built to monitor the electricity transmission system.

Critics complained that only one company was involved. Industry sources pointed out that smaller internet firms that had been slowly but steadily connecting communities to Hydro’s network were cut out of the deal. Leaders from rural and remote communities worried about a lack of competition and the impact that would have on the price of the service.

Three years since the strategy was unveiled, and nearly two years since Xplore was given sole access to the dark fibre, many of those concerns seem to be coming to fruition.

This week, the opposition NDP tabled an April 24 memo from Hydro that indicated a dispute over invoicing for work the crown utility did for Xplore had hampered progress on building the new broadband network. The memo said Xplore had suspended its work in mid-February, and that only 20 per cent of the broadband expansion had been completed.

The memo revealed a significant wrinkle in the PC government’s grand plan to find a private-sector partner to pony up the capital investment to build a broadband network. How and why a simple dispute with Hydro over invoicing could impact the entire project is, however, a bit of a mystery.

Multimillion-dollar rural internet, cell service project hung up on pay dispute

Hydro won’t say. Xplore has gone silent, a bad look for a telecommunications company. And Premier Heather Stefanson didn’t initially know what was going on.

When confronted in question period, Stefanson launched a torrent of hyperbole about how the NDP nearly ruined Hydro with over-budget capital projects, while assuring Manitobans that her government “will continue to get things done for those who live in remote communities in our province.”

And yet, the memo indicates that this government, and its private-sector partner, are not quite getting things done.

The plot thickened late on Thursday — well after the Free Press posted a story on the Hydro-Xplore dispute — when a government spokesperson released a statement disputing the information in the Hydro memo.

The spokesperson said the project was ahead of schedule, with 13 First Nations connected and 10 more on the waiting list. As well, the spokesperson said 433 communities representing 72 per cent of the households have been connected and that “Xplore anticipates connecting 97 per cent of the households by the end of the year.”

It is somewhat concerning that the numbers provided by the premier’s office don’t seem to make sense.

It is somewhat concerning that the numbers provided by the premier’s office don’t seem to make sense. The original deal involved 350 communities and 30 First Nations. According to government officials, 433 communities have already been hooked up, and only 23 First Nations are expected to get broadband service through the dark fibre.

It would be helpful if Hydro, Xplore and the PC government had more to say on this.

Either way, we know Manitoba is way behind other western provinces in extending broadband internet. Governments of all stripes can take some of the blame for the lack of progress, given that no one has found a way to fully exploit the Hydro network.

However, PC governments (past and present) have a particularly tricky legacy.

As the Free Press reported, government-owned Sasktel has extended high-speed internet to 99 per cent of its population. That performance makes the 1997 decision by a former PC government to privatize government-owned MTS look particularly suspect. Would a government-owned MTS have made more progress in extending broadband? Hard to tell, but an important question to ask right now.

At minimum, the Xplore deal casts further doubt on whether the Tory strategy for internet service is the right one for a province that has a large geography and relatively few people.

At minimum, the Xplore deal casts further doubt on whether the Tory strategy for internet service — which relies heavily on partnerships with private companies — is the right one for a province that has a large geography and relatively few people.

What Manitobans need now is clarity.

The Stefanson government needs to reconcile the conflict in numbers about how many customers have been connected and how many are still waiting. And Xplore needs to provide a detailed explanation of its work to date and its feud with Hydro.

Given that everyone involved in this mess claims to be interested in better and more reliable communication, you would think they would acknowledge an inescapable truth in this story.

You can’t have good communication when the key parties are either not telling you the truth, or won’t say anything at all.

dan.lett@winnipegfreepress.com

Dan Lett
Columnist

Dan Lett is a columnist for the Free Press, providing opinion and commentary on politics in Winnipeg and beyond. Born and raised in Toronto, Dan joined the Free Press in 1986.  Read more about Dan.

Dan’s columns are built on facts and reactions, but offer his personal views through arguments and analysis. The Free Press’ editing team reviews Dan’s columns before they are posted online or published in print — part of the our tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.