Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to return to the topic of adequate and affordable access to internet services and the barriers facing students and families.
In February 2021, I asked questions of the Ministers of ECE and of Infrastructure regarding the total inadequacy of bandwidth provided to Yellowknife school authorities. I raised the problem after I was told that Yellowknife schools and Aurora College shared an internet connection of 300 megabytes per second provided by the GNWT, which is equivalent to a cable modem at home. Consider that Yellowknife Catholic schools alone has about 1700 users and you begin to understand how hopelessly inadequate this arrangement has been.
In response to my questions, the Minister of Infrastructure, who is responsible for information technology said, "we have been working on an RFP or Request for Proposals for increased internet services" for boards.
All three Yellowknife education authorities record using their program funds to buy more internet bandwidth and even additional modems to provide greater inschool coverage. As one representative told me, this significant expenditure was essential given the high level of frustration and lack of ability for teachers and students to access technology sufficient for learning.
Even without the increased demands of COVID, providing students adequate internet is an essential part of modern education. Our education authorities have repeatedly raised this issue through the NWT Superintendents Association, and through the English and French associations of school superintendents of Canada giving us a rather poor national standing. This situation still exists a year after the Infrastructure minister told me a solution was in the works. Failure to provide needed technical infrastructure puts our students at a disadvantage compared to learners in other jurisdictions and even within the Northwest Territories. I will have questions for the Minister of Infrastructure on when this problem of equitable internet access throughout our education system will finally be fixed. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Members' statements. Member for Tu NedheWiilideh.
