It’s pretty easy to spend fifteen million dollars building broadband infrastructure. It is a lot harder to spend that kind of money wisely.
When I ran a few network organizations, I spent the company’s money like it was my own. It doesn’t appear that the CRTC takes the same care spending money it has collected from the tax it charges on the basis of our telecom bills.
The CRTC issued a release announcing “action to help bring fibre Internet to three communities in British Columbia and the Yukon”. The press release says the Commission is committing over $14M to CityWest in order to bring “high-speed fibre internet to Jade City and Good Hope Lake in far northern BC, and to Upper Liard, near the southern edge of the Yukon.
The release undersells the commitment. When I went to the actual decision [2025-30], I could understand why the amount was understated and why no customer count appears in the press release. The decision reveals the amount is actually a lot closer to fifteen million ($14,849,784) and there are “approximately” 113 households to be served. Approximately?
Jade City had a population of 30; Good Hope Lake had 41; of the 3, Upper Liard is the big community with 130 people living in 55 households. The CRTC’s estimate of 113 households is generous.
Assuming 113 households is an accurate figure, the CRTC funding works out to $131,000 per household. And that isn’t the total cost. CityWest is committing its own funds as well, and we have to assume that there will be some kind of recurring revenues in the plan. Think about that subsidy for a minute: $131,000 per household.
The CRTC says in its decision that it took into account the appropriateness of the proposed network technology and infrastructure. I have trouble believing that. Three years ago, I wrote “Building better broadband” and said that we need to be technology agnostic in picking solutions for rural and remote broadband. The CRTC was technology agnostic in its recent decision for the Far North. So why wasn’t low earth orbit satellite considered to be a viable option for residents of these communities?
Starlink retails for $140 per month. That is $1680 per year. If I took $33,600 and invested that conservatively to yield 5%, I could pay for Starlink forever, and I would still have the $33,600 investment in the bank. No customer fee; no investment from CityWest and I would have only spent a quarter of the fifteen million dollars that the CRTC just gave away.
The CRTC must have thought that it didn’t really matter since this was spending “other people’s money”. Except that it is our money. Money the CRTC collects from us by taxing telecom bills to fill up the Broadband Fund.
CityWest applied back in June of 2023, more than a year and a half ago. The Commission suggests that its way of reviewing and releasing decisions enables it “to expedite the funding approval process to address the immediate need of Canadians for improved access to broadband infrastructure.”
Eighteen months is hardly an expedited process, especially in this case. People could have had free broadband for life starting in the summer of 2023, at a quarter of the overall cost.
I said it at the top. It’s easy to spend fifteen million dollars on broadband, especially when it’s other people’s money. It is a lot harder to spend that kind of money wisely.
[Postscript: January 31, 2025] It turns out that CRTC had already funded fibre to the home in Upper Liard back in 2020, as part of a $38.6 million Broadband Fund allocation to improve local access infrastructure in 19 communities.
This isn’t a case of two different government agencies funding two different service providers to cover the same community. In this instance, the CRTC doesn’t appear to be able to keep track of which communities it already paid for.
Pretty shocking numbers!