MPs and business leaders push for rural connectivity in Canada

Politicians and business leaders spoke about the importance of connectivity and attention to rural communities at an April 10 panel in Ottawa.

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The Recognizing Rural Communities discussion was led by former MP and Conservative Party interim leader Candice Bergen and consisted of two panels, one with politicians and one with industry stakeholders.

Why it matters: Increased connectivity and incentives in rural areas could lead to economic growth.

Bergen said federal politicians must better understand that Canada has a diversity of rural communities and different approaches are needed to meet their specific needs.

“They’re all rural, but they all can be very different in terms of the challenges that they face. Many of those challenges can only be addressed through a really focused effort, sector by sector.”

Accessible broadband internet and the need for reliable web connectivity in rural areas was a primary focus.

Gudie Hutchings, minister of rural economic development, spoke about her experience with this issue in the largely rural riding of Long Range Mountains in western Newfoundland.

“Before the pandemic shifted our lives more online and transformed basically how we lived, it was clear we had a connectivity gap in Canada, especially in rural Canada,” Hutchings said.

“We heard from rural Canadians that broadband internet was the equalizer for economic development and for life.”

She said broadband can help long-distance learning, career support and medical care and “it’s given families peace of mind.”

Dan Mazier, shadow minister of rural economic development, called rural Canada “the lifeline that fuels our country’s growth and prosperity,” but also acknowledged the gap in internet access that could prevent rural Canada from reaching its full potential.

“That means unlocking our abundant natural resources, including our energy and agriculture, not only for ourselves, but for the rest of the world.

“However, to fully harness this potential, we must address a pressing need, the need for high-speed internet and cellular connectivity.”

The first panel, Putting Rural Canada on the National Agenda, featured Liberal MP Francis Drouin, Conservative MP Lianne Rood and NDP MP Taylor Bachrach.

Drouin said a major concern in his Ontario riding of Glengarry-Prescott-Russell is the “exodus” of youth to Ottawa and Montreal, noting it is a challenge to draw talent back to rural parts of his riding.

“Remote working, that’s a huge opportunity for us now, but we need access to internet.”

Bachrach said rural communities need people who really want to live there.

“What do we need to do to ensure that rural communities are stable over time? That they’re able to recruit people who want to move to rural communities, not just for a job, not just to get in, make a buck and get out, (that) want to move to rural communities to set up a life for themselves?”

Bachrach also mentioned the challenge to recruit health-care professionals.

“We’re seeing emergency rooms put on diversion, people having to travel to other communities to access emergency services because there aren’t enough doctors.

“We need to ask ourselves: how do we create vibrant and sustainable communities that doctors and nurses want to move to?”

Rood said rural Canadians do not have enough options for fibre-optic internet.

“Connectivity, ‘the last mile.’ We hear that a lot across the country, simply not having access even to basic cell phone service in some areas where, you know, farmers are very reliant on technology now, more than most people realize,” she said.

“Not having access to cell phone service, to the internet, availability to run the programs in their tractors, when you’re field mapping or you’re trying to test different places in your soil, it makes it very difficult.”

Rood also mentioned the carbon tax as a factor that “penalizes rural Canadians over urban Canadians” due to lack of public transit.

Investment and growth

The second panel, Business and investment in Rural Canada, included Forest Products Association of Canada CEO Derek Nighbor, Canadian Telecoms Association CEO and former P.E.I. premier Robert Ghiz and Cathy Jo Noble of the National Cattle Feeders’ Association.

Ghiz said connectivity is “one of the themes to the solution.”

“We want to be able to connect more people. The more customers you have, the better off you do.”
But cost is a problem.

“To be able to connect that … last mile, could be the last hundred miles or thousand miles. It becomes very cost-prohibitive.”

Ghiz said most Canadians have access to broadband internet but the disparity grows when looking at rural communities.

“If you look at rural Canada today, rural Canada is only 67 per cent connected to home internet. That’s a lot of connectivity that needs to take place.”