Wireless industry needs ‘stick’ to boost rural coverage: MP

OTTAWA — While traditionally, government funding has been directed to boost fixed Internet service, perhaps there should be some public assistance for improving wireless coverage, a member of Parliament mused Thursday as the Canadian Wireless Telecommunication Association (CWTA) appeared in front of parliamentarians. “Since the ’90s the funding always goes to broadband. There’s never been a single, significant program from the federal government to cover cell service. So it’s a message I’m putting out there—it’s not your decision; it will be up to the government. There’s going to be an economic update and a 2017 budget and I think this message must be put out there and I hope I have the support of the major players,” NDP MP Guy Caron said, in French, during the House of Commons’ standing committee on finance’s final pre-budget consultation meeting on Parliament Hill. CWTA regulatory affairs and government relations director Kurt Eby fielded the lion’s share of questions from committee members to witnesses representing eight different groups during the 90-minute session, with many comments and queries focused on the high cost of wireless service in Canada. In its submission to the committee in advance of the 2017 federal budget, CWTA recommended — as it did during budget consultations in the spring — that changes be made to the tax system to increase the capital cost allowance rate that businesses can claim for depreciable expenses on telecommunications equipment. Though acknowledging it wouldn’t solve the issue, Eby pointed to that suggestion as a potential aid to boost investment in underserved areas, such as in Caron’s Quebec riding, but Caron said his fear was that any future investment will continue to be directed to urban areas. “If the free market isn’t working for those individuals , those people, I see that as the carrot, so we’ll have to come up with the stick at some point and we’ll have to find a way of forcing them to offer 21st century service which is necessary today,” Caron said. “The government’s already funding fixed broadband,” Eby said. “As I said, there’s about a billion dollars in every budget coming just from payments from the rights to use spectrum, so we think there’s some money there.” In addition to encouraging allocation of spectrum for commercial mobile use, the CWTA’s written submission also included recommendations to review the Scientific Research and Experimental Development program “with the goal of reinstituting some of the competitive tax credits, including those for capital expenditures,” as well as pushing for the new budget to “commit to ensuring taxation parity among all suppliers of digital goods in Canada,” and to remove the “competitive advantage” that online media services such as Netflix Inc. have over domestic products. Rogers Communications Inc. included a similar request in its written submission to the committee, recommending that there be the “introduction of a mandatory GST/HST registration requirement for non-resident suppliers of digital supplies to Canadian consumers. This approach has been adopted by many other Value-Added Tax jurisdictions and has been recognized as the most viable approach by the OECD.” Telus Corp.’s submission focused on protecting infrastructure such as communication lines, fibre optic networks and wireless infrastructure and asked for specific legislation “to give law enforcement the tools needed to prosecute these offences separately and help to protect critical infrastructure.” Telus said that each year it invests more than $3 billion in infrastructure “expansion and sustainment, which is at an increasing risk due to metal theft and illegal tampering.” In its submission to the committee, Xplornet Communications Inc. said the government’s new rural broadband program should provide “dedicated funding toward addressing the unique challenges of remote northern communities, including the territories of Nunavut and Nunavik.” Xplornet also recommended that the incoming program “prioritize investment in backhaul, or ‘backbone’ infrastructure which can be publicly accessed in order to approve ‘last-mile’ connectivity utilizing the ‘best-fit’ technology for that region of Canada.” — With reporting by Charelle Evelyn at cevelyn@thewirereport.ca and editing by Ahmad Hathout at ahathout@thewirereport.ca

Wireless industry needs ‘stick’ to boost rural coverage: MP

Broadcast | October 27, 2016

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Wireless industry needs ‘stick’ to boost rural coverage: MP

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