In eight of those municipalities, connections meeting the Canada Radio-television and Telecommunication Commission’s minimum standard of 50 megabits per second for download speeds are completely unavailable. The CRTC estimates just 46 per cent of rural Canadians have access to internet that meets that minimum standard, compared to 80 per cent for the country as a whole.
Byron Holland, chief executive of CIRA, an organization that advocates for quality broadband access and manages the .ca domain, says the data demonstrates the importance of improving connectivity as Canada tries to rebuild its economy after the pandemic.
Infrastructure spending will be key to the great kick-start, Holland says, especially for struggling businesses in the private sector: “I think one of the highest, best uses of money is connectivity. We’ve seen how critical it is.”