Lack of high-speed Internet hurting growth in remote, rural parts of Ontario
Ontario Chamber of Commerce calls for province to make high-speed internet access a priority in remote and rural areas

TheStar.com
Rob Ferguson
July 21, 2016

Ontario is leaving businesses in remote and rural areas stranded from more customers — and holding back economic growth — because of the lack of high-speed Internet, the Ontario Chamber of Commerce says.

The lobby group is calling on the province — now in the midst of a $160 billion, 12-year infrastructure plan for transit, roads and bridges — to dedicate billions more to improving access to the web.

“Broadband is no longer recognized as a luxury. It is a basic infrastructure requirement, much like roads, bridges and electricity,” chamber president Allan O’Dette wrote Thursday in a letter to Premier Kathleen Wynne.

The problem is that, in remote or sparsely populated regions, there is not a “business case” for private sector companies to install broadband fibre optic or copper lines, leaving government the fill in the gaps, O’Dette added.

But without service of at least 5 megabytes per second (Mbps), companies and citizens in affected areas are have-nots in an increasingly digital world, he argued.

“Given this challenge, investment in high-speed Internet as public infrastructure should be prioritized in order to safeguard economic growth as well as the government’s commitment to shifting more public services to online channels,” O’Dette wrote.

“Just as businesses depend on roads and electricity, high-speed Internet is fundamental to advancing the province’s economic interests.”

Advocates have long called for an end to the urban-rural “digital divide,” noting the country has for decades had regulations to ensure basic telephone service is available to all, with profitable services in urban areas subsidizing higher costs in remote locations.

The chamber estimates that a 10-per-cent increase in households with broadband could accelerate economic growth by up to 1.5 percentage points.

Officials at the lobby group said the province needs to start by determining which areas of the province have service below the “accepted standard” speed of 5 Mbps – including some that still use dial-up.

Those areas “should be targeted as priority sites of government investment,” O’Dette said.

One way to improve broadband service would be to provide economic incentives for private companies to upgrade their internet lines in rural and remote areas, perhaps with matching government funds, the chamber recommended.

The province should also set targets for broadband penetration and speeds and compare with other jurisdictions that battle with Ontario for a share of the global business pie.

“In a competitive global knowledge economy, we cannot allow Ontario communities and businesses to lag,” O’Dette wrote to Wynne, who is in Whitehorse at the annual meeting of premiers.

In her June cabinet shuffle, Wynne appointed deputy premier Deb Matthews as the minister responsible for digital government, signalling the province will make better use of information technology to improve services to the public.

Matthews is now conducting an international search to hire Ontario’s first “chief digital officer” to lead a government-wide strategy that will broaden services beyond online drivers’ licences renewals and other services available on the Internet.

The position, at a deputy minister level, will pay more than $200,000 a year.