Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Just going back to my Member's statement about Internet speeds and Internet connectivity, my questions are for the Minister of Finance. My question is: have there been any recent efforts from her department to help improve Internet speeds in our small communities? Marsi cho.
Thank you, Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Internet speeds in small communities right now are subject to a target that was set by the federal government of improving to a national rate of 50 and 10 or 50 megabytes per second. We certainly aren't there yet, but that is a federal commitment, and it is the role of the GNWT in this regard to act as an advocate and a supporter; an advocate with our federal partners and a supporter of our local service providers to ensure that they are taking steps to achieve that goal.
With respect to the federal government, Mr. Speaker, there are some important funding initiatives under way that we will be looking to ensure we get our share of, the CRTC Broadband Fund and the Universal Broadband Fund that are meant to advance those goals. As I say, it certainly will be our intention to take every effort to see that all of the communities in the Northwest Territories are moving towards achieving those goals. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you to the Minister for that response. I guess, for the other part of my Member's statement, I mentioned the fibre optic link. I was just wondering why Lutselk'e was bypassed as part of this plan.
That particular project, I acknowledge, simply was not looking to divert itself toward Lutselk'e. It was a project that ran up the Mackenzie Valley, and that was the design and intent of the project, to run up the Mackenzie Valley. To my knowledge, to be very honest, there is no understanding that I have right now that Lutselk'e is easily added to that. That remains a challenge. It is one of our satellite communities, and I anticipate that the next likely scenario that will see significant improvement is with low-Earth-orbit satellite systems that are hopefully coming online in the next couple of years. Again, in that regard, the GNWT is an advocate to ensure that we have access to those systems and that service providers are able to make best use of them once available.
Thank you for that response. Again, just trying to get some better understanding for the other side: let's say if we have a committee meeting there right now, we couldn't do it. That is a problem. I need to bring more public awareness to this. We couldn't do any meetings right now as a House, just because it wouldn't be doable because of the lack of infrastructure there for this. I guess I will need some commitment. My next question is: what commitments can the Minister make to further improve Internet speeds in our smaller communities such as Lutselk'e?
All of the eight satellite communities, eight communities that are on satellite services, they are sadly stuck at 5 megabytes per second, as I understand, which is a slow speed. It is far below the standard that the federal government is seeking to bring all of Canada up to. There is going to be some significant work there to do. Again, though, we aren't a service-providing business; we are a government. That does change our ability and limit our ability to act as a service provider. That said, the Government of the Northwest Territories is very keenly focused on the national target and very keenly focused on ensuing that our role, again, as a supporter to the Northwestel or other service providers and as an advocate at the federal government level, that we are fulfilling those roles as best we can to make sure that we are getting all of our communities up to the federal standard as quickly as possible.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you for those responses. I did have another question, but I would just try to navigate my way through this. Just from hearing your responses, I think it's important that we need to know what is being done now to fix this problem. I want to hear what the Minister has to say to fix this problem now. Marsi cho.
We are all struggling right now in the North. Even Yellowknife speeds are slower than what would be ideal. It makes it difficult in the time of COVID to be doing our work, to be in school, to be self-isolating when necessary. I am certainly alive to the challenges. As far as what is happening now, Mr. Speaker, I know that Northwestel, as a private industry partner, has been active and does have applications in to the CRTC. It's perhaps not really my role to speak to what they have on the go, but I would certainly offer to work with them to perhaps provide a briefing to committee of what information is available.
Secondly, Mr. Speaker, I think it's come up in this House already, the need for a plan that does again acknowledge the role of the government. Sometimes, it's a somewhat limited role of the government, but still, the role that we do have, there should be a plan in place. I certainly want to assure that that work is underway so that I can come back and be in a better position to give some concrete examples of what we can do, acknowledging at the same time what we can't do. To that extent, I hear the Member's frustration, and I will commit to moving forward to get that part of my work done. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
