Lexpert magazine features articles and columns on developments in legal practice management, deals and lawsuits of interest in Canada, the law and business issues of interest to legal professionals and businesses that purchase legal services.
Issue link: https://digital.carswellmedia.com/i/1470131
4 www.lexpert.ca BRIDGING THE DIGITAL DIVIDE COVID REVEALED HIGH-SPEED INTERNET'S ESSENTIAL ROLE IN CANADIANS' FULL PARTICIPATION IN SOCIETY, AND EXPANDING BROADBAND ACCESS IS A PRIORITY OF GOVERNMENTS ACROSS THE COUNTRY Feature IN THE third calendar year of a COVID pandemic that has driven people everywhere into isolation, governments in Canada are pushing to connect more Canadians through broadband high-speed internet. In March 2020, it became indisputable that reliable access to high-speed internet was essential for participation in society. "We were all at home, and internet access became absolutely critical for – not just social interactions … it was also critical for people doing their jobs at home, for kids learning at home, access to government services – things that just couldn't have happened if you didn't have decent-quality, high-speed internet," says Brad Nicpon, a partner at McCarthy Tétrault. Nicpon, whose practice focuses on infra- structure, construction, energ y, project development, and public-private partner- ships, identifies a problem here. While internet service providers (ISPs) can be relied upon to provide excellent internet access to high-density population centres, farther afield, in rural and northern regions and remote Indigenous communi- ties, broadband development is oen not economically feasible. "We were working on this problem pre-pandemic," says Josh Van Deurzen, a partner with Torys LLP who advises on major infrastructure and public-private partnership projects in Canada and the US. "At that time, we were already in a world where it was not, I would say, controversial [to say] that broadband was considered to be an essential service." "en the pandemic came along, and it just exacerbated it. It really shone a light on how important broadband infrastructure really is." While governments focused on the issue before COVID, he says that all levels are now "hyper-focused" on it. "ere's been a real push to expand access to internet to people who don't have access," says Nicpon. "And the target for both the provincial and federal governments … is unserved and underserved communities, so places where the internet is too slow to function properly, or places that don't have it at all." Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) has committed to connecting 98 percent of Canadians to high-speed internet by 2026 and 100 percent by 2030. e feds are hoping to achieve this through various programs, including the Universal Broadband Fund, a subsidy-based program with $2.75 billion to support high-speed internet projects in rural and remote communities. e fund includes up to $50 million for internet projects that primarily benefit Indigenous peoples, up to $750 million for "large, high-impact projects," and a "rapid response stream" for shovel-ready projects. e Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB) provides $3 billion in loans for broadband development, including the Manitoba Fibre project, which will use 2,657-kilometres of fibre-optic cabling to connect roughly 48,500 households. e CIB is also part- nering with the Kivalliq Inuit Association and Sakku Investments Corporation on the proposed Kivalliq Hydro-Fibre Link