Pond Inlet, Nunavut 25 August 2014
Introduction
Prime Minister Stephen Harper today announced significant financial support to provide upgraded high-speed Internet access to approximately 12,000 households in Nunavut and the Nunavik region of northern Quebec. This investment advances the Government of Canada’s priority to promote social and economic development in the North, as outlined in Canada’s Northern Strategy. The announcement was made in Pond Inlet, Nunavut, during the Prime Minister’s ninth annual Northern Tour, taking place from August 21 to 26, 2014. He was joined by James Moore, Minister of Industry, and Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of the Environment, Minister of the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency and Minister for the Arctic Council.
The Internet evolves at an incredible speed and newer services like cloud computing, streaming video and distance education programs require rapid transfers of larger amounts of data. The service improvements targeted by the Connecting Canadians program will help bring modern Internet applications and services within reach for Northerners, with improved speeds to access e-commerce, high-resolution video, employment opportunities, distance education and all the other online benefits that allow Canadians to participate in today’s economy.
The northern component of Connecting Canadians will benefit communities in Nunavut and the Nunavik region of northern Quebec that depend on satellite services for their high-speed Internet connections. The leases to provide these satellite services expire in 2016. Today’s announcement will not only ensure that satellite broadband remains available to these communities after 2016, but it will also greatly improve Internet speed for Northerners.
The investment is part of Connecting Canadians, a Government of Canada program that helps to develop Canadian broadband in rural and remote communities. The investment to extend broadband coverage was announced in Economic Action Plan 2014, building on the commitment in the 2013 Speech from the Throne.
Connecting Canadians will work with telecommunications service providers to extend access to broadband Internet at 3 to 5 Megabits per second (Mbps) to a targeted 280,000 Canadian households. The first phase of Connecting Canadians – creating updated maps of broadband coverage available across Canada – began on July 22, 2014. Once this mapping exercise is complete, a call for applications will be issued in the fall of 2014, with approved projects announced in the spring of 2015.
Quick Facts
- Connecting Canadians delivers on the commitment made in Economic Action Plan 2014 to bring high-speed Internet to an additional 280,000 Canadian households in rural and remote regions of the country.
- With today’s announcement, Connecting Canadians is allocating a portion of its funding to a dedicated northern component that will ensure the approximately 12,000 households in Nunavut and the Nunavik region in northern Quebec continue to have access to high-speed Internet services.
- With targeted speeds of 3 to 5 Mbps, residents will have greater access to online resources.
- Connecting Canadians is a key element of Digital Canada 150, a plan to guide Canada’s digital future and take advantage of the digital economy as we celebrate our 150th anniversary in 2017.
Quote
“In order to continue to grow our economy, we need to ensure that Canadians living in northern communities have access to affordable high-speed Internet. Today’s announcement will provide remote communities in Nunavut and Nunavik with improved access to learning, career and business opportunities that will support growing communities, and lead to increased economic growth as well as a stronger, more connected Canada.” – Prime Minister Stephen Harper
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