Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that the committee recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories ensure fibre optic is made available in Tuktoyaktuk for the residents at completion of the Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk fibre line installation. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion?
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstaining? The motion is carried.
---Carried
Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that the committee recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories ensure all backboned internet infrastructure in communities that accommodates open wholesale access to the NWT businesses to collocate internet services and a fair price to NWT businesses. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. The motion is in order. To the motion?
Question.
The question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstentions? The motion is carried.
---Carried
Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that the committee recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories advocate for Canadian Radio Telecommunications Commission to set aside funding under the broadband fund for smaller service providers and Indigenousowned businesses to help promote competition. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion?
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstentions? The motion is carried.
Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that the committee recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories ensure all publiclyfunded internet backboned infrastructure in the community in the NWT provide wholesale highspeed third party internet access. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Motion is in order. To the motion? Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to reiterate a point that I think is made in the last three motions here, is that we pay Northwestel about $10 million a year right now. We coown a $100 million fibre line with them. The CRTC and the federal government gives them hundreds of millions of dollars in public money every single year and yet, consistently, we do not advocate or hold them accountable to allow competition in the market. I understand that they are largely, the only regulated internet service monopoly in Canada, and there's some fighting that has to happen at the CRTC that does that. But to date, we have built publicly-funded infrastructure and then not allowed third party competition on it. We have failed to get the last mile to home in a lot of communities, and I think the way to do that is leverage our position of giving Northwestel millions of dollars every single year to get some things out of them, and I just haven't been seeing that to date. So I hope that the Minister takes these recommendations seriously. I know there's some ongoing projects in cooperation with Northwestel, but, really, we have to make sure that when taxpayer money is used to build internet infrastructure, that wholesale highspeed third party access is allowed so some competition can maybe emerge in this monopoly. Thank you.
To the motion?
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? All those abstaining? The motion is carried.
Mr. Jacobson.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that the committee recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories address digital divide within the Northwest Territories by providing free access to basic internet packages through income assistance funding through the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation for public units, recommendation. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. This is another one that in almost every other jurisdiction, the federal government has created a low income internet service which allows subsidized internet. Northwestel's parent company, Bell, has offered that in many jurisdictions. Northwestel has refused to do that here, once again because they're this weird federallyregulated monopoly. But I really do believe that there's a way to leverage the $10 million a year we give them to say, hey, we want to do what your parent company has agreed to do in other jurisdictions and make an internet rate for people who have lower incomes. And I also think there's a way to probably leverage some of that through public housing. Lots of public housing in other jurisdictions now has bear minimum low bandwidth free Wi-Fi built into the buildings. Northwestel, I think, could probably offer that service. It's probably even a win for them. Their parent company has started doing it in places. So once again, I think this is really about meeting with Northwestel and leveraging the millions and millions of dollars we give them every year. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I agree with my colleague. I think this is one of the low hanging fruit that we often hear the government talk about. As we, again, had gone through the pandemic, we've realized how much of our stuff needs to be accessible virtually, and a lot of the low income people IN my constituents have told me that they are not able to download forms or get online and do the housing or the, you know, health requests and things that they need to do, and that's a lot of work that we as MLAs end up picking up to help them navigate the system. So I think this is a win-win, that in the long run would actually end up saving the government money and would allow MLAs to focus on other areas of our work than trying to just be pathfinders through the system. So I really want to throw my support behind this motion as well. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Great Slave. To the motion?
Question.
The question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? All those abstaining? The motion is carried.
Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that the committee recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories address the digital divide building partnerships that provide free WiFi services in all regional centres. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion?
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstention? The motion is carried.
Carried
Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that the committee recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories procure internet services in smaller pieces so that local internet service providers can effectively bid on these opportunities. Thank you, Madam Chair.
The motion is in order. To the motion
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstentions? The motion is carried.
Carried
Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that the committee recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories provide a response to the recommendations contained in this report within 120 days. Thank you, Madam Chair.
The motion is in order. To the motion?
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstention? The motion is carried.
Carried
Thank you, committee. Do you agree that you have concluded consideration of Report 2219(2), Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment, Report on Telecommunications?
Agreed
Thank you, committee. We have concluded consideration of Committee Report 2219(2), Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment, Report on Telecommunications.
Committee, we have agreed to consider Committee Report 2019(2), Standing Committee on Social Development, Report on Bill 30: An Act to Amend the Aurora College Act. I will go to the chair of the Standing Committee on Social Development for any opening comments. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the committee's report was read into the record on November 30th, 2021 so I do not have any additional substantive comments to add at this time. Individual Members may have comment on the report, and I would like to thank the committee for their work on this report. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. I will now open the floor to general comments on the Committee Report 2019(2), Standing Committee on Social Development, Report on Bill 30: An Act to Amend the Aurora College Act. Member for Great Slave.
