[Advisors] Broadband in the Federal Budget

[Garth Graham]

The trick about the “$305 million over five years” is that it’s 1 million in 2014-2015 and 80 million in 2015-2016, and nothing forecast beyond that.  "High speed" indeed!

GG
 
ECONOMIC ACTION PLAN 2014
http://www.budget.gc.ca/2014/docs/plan/pdf/budget2014-eng.pdf

Chapter 3.4: Supporting Families and Communities
Improving Access to Broadband in Rural and Northern Communities (p. 179)
 
Economic Action Plan 2014 proposes to provide $305 million over five years to extend and enhance access to high-speed broadband networks to a target speed of 5 megabits per second for up to an additional 280,000 Canadian households.
 
For most Canadians, access to affordable and reliable broadband networks is an important part of everyday life. The rapid evolution of technology, continuously changing user needs and the wide use of the internet require broader access to faster network speeds. Households in communities outside of urban centres commonly face challenges in accessing equivalent internet service levels due to factors such as remote location and challenging terrain. In the 2013 Speech from the Throne, the Government committed to continue working to make high-speed broadband networks available for rural Canadians. Enhancing and extending access will create jobs, growth and prosperity for rural and Northern Canadians by increasing their ability to participate in the digital economy. Additionally, small and medium-sized businesses will benefit by having increased access to information and markets.
 
Working with other partners, the Government is supporting such access in a number of ways, including by making broadband projects eligible under the new Building Canada plan announced in Economic Action Plan 2013. In the Fall of 2013, the Minister of Industry also announced that the Government will only renew those wireless spectrum licenses intended to be used to provide high-speed internet access to rural Canadians if the companies holding the licenses are using them for that purpose. Those companies that have not used the spectrum will lose it and the Government will ensure Canadians benefit from additional quality spectrum being deployed across the country for high-speed internet services.
 
To keep pace with the needs of Canadians in rural and Northern communities, Economic Action Plan 2014 proposes to provide $305 million over five years to extend and enhance broadband service to a target speed of 5 megabits per second for up to an additional 280,000 Canadian households, which represents near universal access. The Government will announce further details about the new program in the coming months.