First Nations high-speed internet access lagging behind Canadian average

High-speed internet access on First Nations continues to lag well behind the Canadian average, according to a recent report, prompting calls for more government subsidization of internet access.

"Ideally, it would be something similar to our highways and roads," said Jesse Fiddler, director of Kuhkenah (K-Net), a First Nations-owned and operated information and communication technology service provider.

"The challenge is that our telecommunications infrastructure in Canada has always been done by for-profit companies."

The Auditor General's report on connectivity in rural and remote areas found that in 2021, nearly 91 per cent of households across Canada had internet access that met minimum connection speed targets set by the federal government — 50 megabits per second for downloading and 10 megabits per second for uploading (50/10 Mbps).

That dropped to about 60 per cent of households in rural and remote areas, and about 43 per cent for households on reserves.

This leads to a lack of opportunity for participation in the digital economy and affects access to services like remote health care or education, according to the report.

"There is a big discrepancy right across Canada for First Nations connectivity and even more so in some provinces," Fiddler said.

Fiddler, who is from Sandy Lake First Nation in northwestern Ontario, said he's happy with some of the work being done by Ontario's provincial government, such as offering multiple streams of funding for organizations that bring high-speed internet access to First Nations, and reevaluating regulations that could be limiting telecommunications growth (such as access to telephone poles and municipal infrastructure).

But, he said, other regions continue to struggle. He said in Manitoba, where the report said 15 per cent of households on First Nations have access to the minimum target speeds, the province offers no targeted funding for First Nations internet development.

Rob McMahon, associate professor in media and technology studies and political science at the University of Alberta who has studied connectivity in the N.W.T., said it can be tough to make the business case for better broadband infrastructure for Indigenous communities.

"These communities are often, not always, but often located in geographically-dispersed areas with quite small populations," he said, adding that this would disincentivize telecommunications companies that prioritize profits.

McMahon also said internet speeds slower than the 50/10 Mbps government target are more accessible in remote communities, which could suggest that service providers have not upgraded the local infrastructure.

"That infrastructure takes a lot to maintain, more than what you're making from it. So that's where the federal government has to come in and… subsidize that for all of rural and remote Canada," Fiddler said.

Internet a potential revenue source for First Nations

At K-Net, Fiddler said they work to ensure all the local infrastructure is owned by First Nations.

"They can set their own rates and invest into it as well. They can make money out of it can be a sustainable business," Fiddler said.

However, the process of getting better internet to some areas can become a years-long process of dealing with bureaucracy and changing circumstances.

Fiddler said one community K-Net worked with waited four years after getting funding approved before it had the connectivity it needed.

The report said $2.4 billion was available through federal departments and agencies for use to support improving Internet or mobile cellular connectivity by the end of the 2022-2023 fiscal year, but that only 40 per cent of that had been spent by January 2023.

The report also said stakeholders complained funding decisions took too long.

Fiddler said he would like to see the application and funding process streamlined to speed up access and save money.

"If you put in a proposal two or three years ago, and you're finally at the point you're ready to do construction and build, your costs have gone way above your original budget," he said.

It will take a co-ordinated approach by federal and provincial governments, as well as funding agencies, to achieve the federal goal of 100 per cent of households in Canada having high-speed internet access by 2030, Fiddler said.

McMahon said he was hopeful the goal can be reached, given new technologies like satellite systems designed to provide fast service in areas where it's too expensive to build fibre optic networks.