Western Standard - Improving high-speed internet access in rural Alberta.

00:00:00.000 the funding announced today along with a number of other communities across alberta

00:00:05.920 to speak to this excited announcement i'd like to invite the honorable minister hutchins

00:00:10.080 minister of rural economic and develop economic development to speak mr suchens has more than 30

00:00:16.720 years experience as a small business owner in the atlantic canadian tourism she's a strong advocate

00:00:21.600 for rural families and workers as minister hutchins has served in the role of minister

00:00:26.080 rural economic and focused a focus has been on accelerating high-speed internet across for all

00:00:31.680 canadians as well as improving rural housing transit and work opportunities

00:00:42.960 thank you corey and friends good afternoon thank you elder wolfleg mexicum for leading us in prayer

00:00:51.200 to begin today. Chief Crowfoot and the Cisca Nation, thank you for hosting us on Blackfoot

00:00:57.360 territory. Before we begin, I would like to acknowledge the land in which we are gathered

00:01:02.720 as our traditional territory of the Blackfoot Confederacy, which includes the Cisca Nation,

00:01:08.240 the Beguni Nation, the Ghani Nation, and the Blackfoot Nation. Minister Gloobish, Nate,

00:01:14.800 always a pleasure to be in your company. Nate is Alberta's Minister of Technology

00:01:19.280 and innovation and to everybody gathered in the room thanks so much for being here today

00:01:23.920 it's my first time in this area and one thing i'm privileged to do as i travel the country

00:01:28.960 is find magical places and a fine young man i don't see him in the room now but i know

00:01:35.040 shiloh gave me an incredible tour of this facility so if you haven't been through this building and

00:01:42.400 and I'm sure everybody who lives here has.

00:01:45.200 Go and get a tour and be moved.

00:01:48.720 Learn about this area.

00:01:50.120 Learn about the history.

00:01:51.700 Learn about the challenges.

00:01:53.480 Learn about the opportunities.

00:01:55.200 And that's what we're here about to talk about today.

00:01:57.460 Because we know that Internet is no longer a luxury.

00:02:00.600 It's a necessity in the way of life.

00:02:03.120 And, you know, Internet is just not for watching Netflix.

00:02:06.640 As the chief spoke about earlier, you know,

00:02:08.860 it's important for kids doing your homework online,

00:02:11.160 for you working from home face timing with your loved ones it's for you to run and promote your

00:02:17.160 small business it's for virtual health care and it's a vital connection in times of emergencies

00:02:23.080 so simply playing simply simply putting it it levels a playing field for folks all across this

00:02:29.000 magical country no matter where you live but especially for rural canadians so our federal

00:02:34.200 government is committed to providing high-speed internet access to 98 of canadians by 2026 and

00:02:40.200 and 100% by 2030.

00:02:42.600 So in 2014, just 79% of Canadians had access

00:02:47.520 to affordable, reliable, high-speed internet,

00:02:49.560 and today we're at 93.5%.

00:02:52.800 So Canada's invested over $3 billion

00:02:55.460 in the Universal Broadband Fund alone,

00:02:57.660 which is the fund we're talking about today.

00:02:59.760 And we've had many other tools in our toolbox

00:03:01.960 to help us reach our goal

00:03:03.480 of connecting all Canadians by 2030.

00:03:06.360 And since 2015, your federal government

00:03:08.700 invested over 488 million dollars to improve connectivity all across alberta and the results

00:03:14.940 are speaking for themselves because in alberta this means now nearly nine and ten households

00:03:20.380 have access or will soon so in everyday numbers that means 90 percent of albertans are connected

00:03:26.540 and projected of 97.7 percent of households will have access by the end of 20 by the end of 2026.

00:03:34.380 So today's investment is part of a $780 million that we committed together with the government

00:03:41.280 of Alberta in March of 2022 to eliminate the digital divide and connect 100% of Albertans

00:03:47.760 to high-speed internet. Minister Glubish and I announced that on a cold, beautiful day like today

00:03:53.440 in a grain elevator because I was determined we were going to do it in a rural part of Alberta

00:03:58.060 because we need to show every part of Alberta that we're there to help them. And as I said,

00:04:04.380 nearly nine and ten albertans already have access or targeted by a project that is underway

00:04:10.140 but you know what we didn't just commit to get nine out of ten albertans connected we committed

00:04:15.260 to connecting everyone and we're all working hard to make that happen and today we're here to

00:04:20.380 announce we're taking another step to bring high-speed internet access to rural and remote

00:04:25.180 and indigenous communities all across alberta so the federal government along with the government

00:04:30.380 Alberta is providing access to more than 22,500 homes in 166 communities all throughout Alberta

00:04:40.140 and over 3,400 of these homes are Indigenous households. Together we're investing over $112

00:04:46.780 million to build up high-speed connectivity in your province. The funding recipients are Advanced

00:04:54.060 Interactive Canada, ATG Aerotechnology Group, Breg Communications, Canadian Fiber Optics,

00:05:00.820 Eastern Irrigation District, GPN Wireless Networks, IWantWireless.ca, the Malu Holdings,

00:05:07.060 Red Deer County, Sixica Nation, Slave Lake Communities, and Yellowhead County. These 14

00:05:14.540 projects are significant long-term investments in the connectivity all across Alberta. They

00:05:21.860 be completed over the next three years.

00:05:25.120 You know, I like to research where I'm going

00:05:27.800 and the magical parts,

00:05:29.780 and I'll be back, Chief, I promise.

00:05:33.380 I read in your nation's newspaper,

00:05:35.400 I think you call it the Atseniki,

00:05:37.580 how the collaboration in your community,

00:05:40.480 but not only with those that have knowledge in the IT sector,

00:05:44.080 but I loved it when I read

00:05:45.400 that you're collaborating with the community itself.

00:05:48.260 So you're sharing the resources of your elders.

00:05:51.400 You're taking the wisdom, the knowledge, and the experience

00:05:54.180 and working with those that have the IT knowledge.

00:05:57.720 It's going to prepare you to be ready and to embrace the opportunities that high-speed internet has.

00:06:04.680 For rural and remote economies, these projects are going to have an immediate impact.

00:06:09.960 As you said, Chief, students will be able to access their classes online, which is so important.

00:06:15.060 and the installation projects, the process that that goes through is going to create even more

00:06:21.420 and more jobs in all your communities. So for folks in rural and remote and indigenous communities

00:06:27.640 in Alberta, a dependable high-speed internet connection can be life-changing. It's better

00:06:33.760 access to health care, to education, to help when you need it. Thank you to everyone involved in

00:06:40.640 making today's announcement possible and thank you chief for the warm welcome to your territory

00:06:45.440 and now I'll pass it all back to Corey. Thank you friends.

00:06:59.020 Thank you Minister Hutchins. Just to elaborate back on the collaboration we have with our IT

00:07:04.260 department so during the pandemic we noticed there was a there was a gap between our infrastructure

00:07:10.980 for internet so we wasn't we we weren't meeting the right standards for it so in collaboration

00:07:16.660 we've a couple of blackfoot tech members we have here today founding members all our it departments

00:07:22.820 across the nation have banded together to help improve internet on the reserve and as a result

00:07:27.780 we are here today gathered for the ubf project so just a little to speak on that there

00:07:34.260 Up next, I'd like to invite up the Honorable Nate Gublish, Alberta's Minister of Technology

00:07:47.640 and Innovation. Prior to his political career, Nate Gublish dedicated his professional life

00:07:51.920 to building and investing in Alberta's technology companies. In October 22, Minister Gublish

00:07:57.320 was sworn in to lead the newly created Ministry of Technology and Innovation, where he continues

00:08:02.480 to lead the modernized government and government services and led the efforts to attract more

00:08:07.360 investments in alberta's technology sector minister gubush thank you

00:08:16.960 well thank you corey thank you chief crowfoot for your hospitality here today thank you

00:08:22.160 elder wolfleg for your beautiful prayer and opening remarks thank you minister hutchings

00:08:27.840 for being here with me for this really exciting announcement but before we begin I too also would

00:08:34.640 like to acknowledge that we are gathered on Blackfoot territory which as I'm learning today

00:08:41.680 from Chief Profoot it's important not to forget that the Blackfoot history and and all that has

00:08:49.200 taken place on these lands and yes it's a part of treaty seven but it's deeper than just treaty seven

00:08:55.200 And so let us acknowledge today the history of that land that we are gathered on.

00:09:02.020 I also want to acknowledge the Métis people of Alberta who do share a deep connection with the land.

00:09:09.080 I'm very pleased to be here in Siksika for this announcement.

00:09:13.440 Not just because we have something exciting to talk about in terms of technology and innovation and connectivity and broadband investments.

00:09:20.760 But because this is a chance for me to get to know a whole new community of First Nations that I've never met before and learn about their history, learn about the challenges that they have experienced in their lives and in previous generations and learn about how that has shaped and contributed to to Alberta.

00:09:41.400 it's important to me as an MLA to always be open to meeting folks who are from different

00:09:50.300 walks of life and listening to them and learning from them so that I can be better informed as a

00:09:57.500 policymaker I can make better decisions and make sure that I am considering the needs

00:10:01.760 and priorities of all Albertans including those folks living here in Siksika who have

00:10:10.220 Blackfoot heritage. So thank you Chief Crowfoot for helping to teach me a

00:10:20.480 little something new today. This historical place sits on land that was

00:10:30.080 once a meeting place for important buffalo hunting grounds for

00:10:36.440 indigenous peoples for thousands of years.

00:10:39.880 And it is a cultural and geographical center

00:10:42.800 for Blackfoot territory.

00:10:45.420 And so it's fitting that this is now designated

00:10:48.480 as a national historic site

00:10:51.060 and an important cultural center

00:10:53.100 that showcases Siksika nation's rich language

00:10:56.280 and culture and traditions.

00:11:00.180 And I can't think of a better place

00:11:02.060 for us to make this announcement.

00:11:04.580 And of course, you heard from Minister Hutchings from the federal government, but let me also say I am so excited to announce that the governments of Alberta and Canada are jointly investing $112 million through the Universal Broadband Fund to improve high-speed internet access to more than 22,500 households across rural, remote, and indigenous communities in Alberta.

00:11:28.560 and Siksika Nation is included in that

00:11:32.760 and will receive $14.6 million

00:11:35.000 to connect 1,356 households

00:11:39.580 in Siksika No. 146.

00:11:43.080 Strangler, Stobart, Bartstow, Arrowwood,

00:11:46.940 Gleichen, Anastasia,

00:11:49.580 Sholdis, Clooney, and Siksika.

00:11:52.580 All of those communities are,

00:11:54.940 as a result of this investment,

00:11:56.020 going to have access to reliable high-speed internet. As technology evolves, we can see now

00:12:04.720 more than ever that technology itself, it's not just an industry, but it is actually the future

00:12:09.380 of every industry. There's not an aspect of our lives that technology doesn't touch,

00:12:14.740 from education to health care to every aspect of any kind of business that you might want to be a

00:12:20.960 of to agriculture and everything in between every aspect of our lives is touched by technology

00:12:28.480 and without connectivity that technology is meaningless so as we look for ways to provide

00:12:36.720 a better life for all albertans and including albertans from rural remote and indigenous

00:12:41.760 communities we need to solve the connectivity problem and that is why i'm so proud to have

00:12:47.040 have brought forward the Alberta Broadband Strategy in 2022, which included our $390 million

00:12:53.040 commitment in partnership with the federal government, who's matching us dollar for dollar

00:12:58.480 to ensure that we reach 100% of Alberta households by 2027 to ensure reliable high-speed

00:13:06.160 connectivity. Chief, we were talking about this before. You had expressed your hope that this is

00:13:12.480 not just an announcement on paper. It's not just a commitment of dollars, but it's a commitment

00:13:16.120 to the end result and that end result of ensuring that every member of your community has access

00:13:21.680 to reliable high-speed internet is one that we are that we share and so I want to make that

00:13:28.720 commitment to you today this this is a huge investment into your community and to many others

00:13:33.020 but we are about getting the job done so let's consider this the beginning of an important

00:13:38.800 partnership we'll work closely together with you and your community and your community leaders

00:13:43.100 to make sure that we get the job done because this is so important for our kids to make sure

00:13:49.080 that no matter what life may throw at us whether it be a pandemic which we've lived through recently

00:13:53.140 or who knows what may come down the line we want to make sure that our kids have access to high

00:13:57.460 quality education and sometimes that means being able to do homework from home but still check on

00:14:02.100 an assignment online or to be able to interact with your teacher online or interact with other

00:14:06.800 students online it means better access to post-secondary education for folks who want to

00:14:12.200 better their career prospects,

00:14:14.180 but maybe they can't leave their home community

00:14:16.220 to go up to Edmonton or to Calgary or to Lethbridge

00:14:19.660 or to one of the other centers

00:14:21.200 where there is a university or a college.

00:14:23.400 We wanna make sure that access to online programming

00:14:25.760 is something that every single Albertan,

00:14:27.540 no matter where you live, is something that you can access.

00:14:31.160 And that is why investments in connectivity

00:14:33.200 are so important.

00:14:34.020 We wanna make sure that every current or aspiring

00:14:37.140 entrepreneur and business owner has the ability

00:14:39.980 to interact not just with their home community,

00:14:42.000 but with every market around the world

00:14:44.560 and access through connectivity, with better connectivity,

00:14:48.520 that's the only way we can make that happen.

00:14:50.400 And so by making these historic investments in connectivity,

00:14:54.760 we can open up so much opportunity

00:14:57.280 to raise the standard of living of every Albertan

00:14:59.640 across the province, no matter where they live.

00:15:03.120 And that is our commitment as a government of Alberta.

00:15:05.160 And that is why we are making our broadband investment

00:15:07.680 such a big priority.

00:15:10.080 We are committed, as I said,

00:15:11.360 to ensuring that every Albertan across the province

00:15:13.840 has access to universal, high quality, reliable internet.

00:15:17.660 By 2027, I think we are well on our way to achieving that.

00:15:20.740 And today's announcement puts us that much closer.

00:15:23.820 So, just to give you a little bit of context

00:15:27.440 on what we've accomplished to date,

00:15:30.660 at Tech and Innovation,

00:15:31.600 we have been working on 27 different projects

00:15:34.700 that serve at least one indigenous household.

00:15:37.960 These projects in total are valued at $474 million

00:15:41.840 and will require 284 million of public sector funding,

00:15:46.520 which is coming, as I mentioned,

00:15:47.920 dollar for dollar matching between the federal government

00:15:49.920 and the provincial government.

00:15:52.200 And those projects will bring connectivity

00:15:54.800 to an estimated 95,430 households,

00:15:58.120 which includes more than 8,400 indigenous homes.

00:16:04.100 Alberta's broadband strategy is an important part

00:16:06.260 of Alberta's future and is going to make life better

00:16:09.400 for so many families all across our province.

00:16:13.060 This is a good news story for all Alberta too,

00:16:15.100 because we know that by bringing universal connectivity,

00:16:17.700 we will see an estimated increase

00:16:20.720 in Alberta's GDP growth of $1.7 billion.

00:16:25.920 This is good news for every Albertan.

00:16:28.440 We know that this is gonna help to create new jobs

00:16:30.500 all across the province.

00:16:31.580 In fact, we estimate close to 2,000 new jobs

00:16:34.300 in rural Alberta alone.

00:16:36.960 We also know that once this program is complete,

00:16:40.000 up to 40,000 Albertans without access

00:16:43.580 to primary healthcare today will have improved access

00:16:47.060 through digital health options.

00:16:49.600 And we know that the cost in order to provide

00:16:52.060 those health services will be far more affordable

00:16:54.960 as a result.

00:16:56.840 We know that more than 120,000 students

00:16:59.420 will have improved access to remote education.

00:17:02.540 And we look forward, as I said,

00:17:03.660 to supporting even more communities and businesses

00:17:06.040 and families very soon.

00:17:08.960 Alberta will become even more vibrant in just a few years

00:17:12.700 as we secure universal connectivity across the province.

00:17:17.240 Today's investment is yet another important step forward

00:17:19.660 to reaching that goal.

00:17:21.540 So thank you again, Chief Crowfoot,

00:17:22.980 for your hospitality here in Blackfoot territory.

00:17:27.100 Thank you for your collaboration

00:17:28.320 on the projects in your community.

00:17:30.820 Thank you, Minister Hutchings,

00:17:32.100 for your collaboration on the investment.

00:17:34.140 Thank you again, Elder Wolfleg for, again,

00:17:37.660 your hospitality and for your kind words

00:17:40.280 at the beginning of our program today.

00:17:43.100 And with that, I'd like to pass it back to Corey

00:17:46.020 to keep the program rolling.

00:17:47.520 Thank you, everybody.

00:17:57.140 Thank you, Minister Gublish.

00:17:58.580 We kind of have an added agenda item here

00:18:01.640 Before we move forward to Chief Ore Crawford,

00:18:04.820 we'd like to invite Shiloh up here.

00:18:16.620 Hello everybody, good afternoon.

00:18:18.100 My name is Apwina.

00:18:19.520 My government name is Shiloh Clark.

00:18:22.140 And I work here at Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park

00:18:24.880 as our communications coordinator.

00:18:27.220 It is an absolute honor to be able to be in the presence

00:18:30.660 of our ministers here today.

00:18:32.540 And so if I can invite you both back up here,

00:18:34.800 on behalf of Blackfoot Cross and Historical Park,

00:18:37.400 we have a gift that we would like to present

00:18:39.300 to the both of you.

00:19:00.660 If I may have your hand.

00:19:02.660 Here we go.

00:19:04.660 Thank you so much.

00:19:06.660 You are so welcome.

00:19:08.660 So if we could have your hand from the minister.

00:19:14.660 So thank you again.

00:19:16.660 Thank you.

00:19:18.660 Thank you.

00:19:30.660 Why don't we give another round of applause to our guest, Minister Gubish and Minister

00:19:43.500 Hutchins here.

00:19:44.500 Can't forgive us.

00:19:47.500 Finally, I'd like to welcome Chief Ori Crowfoot to share a few words.

00:19:52.940 This is Crowfoot's second term as Chief of 6GAT Nation and he has been a tremendous supporter

00:19:57.540 our initiative to bring high-speed internet for which we are so grateful for his support mr chief

00:20:19.380 i'd like to introduce my council and then h we got uh tracy mccue 0.99

00:20:24.900 Kendall Pantherbone, Luann Soloway, Marsha Wolfcaller,

00:20:30.900 Candace Backfett, and we had some others here, 0.99

00:20:34.900 but they had other obligations.

00:20:37.900 But this is a, did I miss anyone?

00:20:40.900 Owen, sorry.

00:20:42.900 Owen Crain Bear.

00:20:45.900 This is an initiative that's supported not only by the

00:20:50.900 the chief of six gigabyte, but all of the NAH, all of the leadership know the importance of

00:20:57.480 the technology and the connectivity. I'd like to start off by thanking Elder Wolf Legg for

00:21:05.200 starting us off in a good way this afternoon, as well as welcoming Minister Hutchinson and

00:21:12.120 and Blubish to Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park.

00:21:17.140 This is a very historical landmark place

00:21:22.680 that we're standing at right now.

00:21:25.120 In 1877, right over my shoulder,

00:21:29.620 the Blackfoot Treaty was signed by Siksigah

00:21:33.000 and Ganga Pigani and some other nations.

00:21:37.340 And so it's been a, this is a very historical landmark,

00:21:43.580 but also a historical announcement.

00:21:47.660 I'm pleased to be amongst those receiving

00:21:50.680 this funding announcement today.

00:21:53.140 And we look forward to working with the federal minister

00:21:56.020 as well as the provincial minister

00:21:58.080 on making sure this project is seen to be

00:22:02.960 in every household and six a guy.

00:22:06.480 First Nation people have been innovators in technology

00:22:09.480 for time since time immemorial.

00:22:11.680 And the Blackfoot people have always been strong

00:22:13.820 in the area of information and communication technologies.

00:22:17.760 Even so, the digital divide is a current increase

00:22:21.240 in reality for Sixth Guy Nation.

00:22:23.460 Simply put, we do not have reliable access

00:22:26.480 to high-speed internet like many communities

00:22:29.960 across Alberta and Canada.

00:22:32.280 And this lack of high-speed internet

00:22:36.100 was really exposed during the time of COVID.

00:22:39.800 We have a lot of students that were staying home

00:22:41.920 across the province, across the world for that matter,

00:22:45.720 that were remote via internet into classrooms.

00:22:51.900 And because of the size of our nation

00:22:54.960 and the sparsity of the internet,

00:22:59.860 a lot of the connectivity just wasn't there.

00:23:02.500 And so some of our students ended up

00:23:05.040 actually being held back a year because of missing so many days of school and not being

00:23:11.600 able to to to connect and or having to drive from their home to through the city to to get that

00:23:18.800 connectivity to go to school and so this presents challenges as i just mentioned in terms of the

00:23:25.600 nation's economy education health care and even the ability to mean if we connect with one another

00:23:31.440 High-speed internet has been a priority for Sixth Gun Nation for many years now.

00:23:36.140 But making this a reality is no small feat.

00:23:41.080 Sixth Gun Nation is the second largest nation from a land perspective in Canada.

00:23:45.740 It's covering more than 710 square kilometers with our people and their homes located throughout.

00:23:54.300 So to bring high-speed internet in an interconnected network capacity to Sixth Gun Nation, 0.97

00:24:00.640 It needed a sophisticated solution.

00:24:04.000 And again, I'd like to thank the ministers

00:24:06.160 for working with Six-A-Guy

00:24:07.400 to help us come up with those solutions.

00:24:10.440 With this funding provided

00:24:11.840 by the Universal Broadband Fund

00:24:14.100 that supports Six-A-Guy Nation leadership,

00:24:18.040 the hard work of the Blackfoot Tech Group,

00:24:22.020 volunteers, some of the elders,

00:24:25.040 it was all nation collaboration

00:24:26.960 to get to where we're at now.

00:24:29.320 and at the end of the day we're fighting for equitable opportunities a lot of times when you

00:24:36.640 hear us talk at six year guy i don't think any first nation is looking for handouts it's just

00:24:43.440 hand ups and how can we create these meaningful partnerships with with both the provincial

00:24:50.840 government as well as the federal government to create that opportunity of equitableness

00:24:56.940 you know like the goal the goal of my vision is to be able to as somebody's driving across the

00:25:06.700 reserve but not know that they're on the reserve when they come into the reserve there's not a

00:25:12.300 down shift in housing there's not a down shift in roads there's not a down shift in connectivity

00:25:18.020 it's that equitable equitable equitable across all of Alberta and across Canada I think that's

00:25:25.880 what myself and the rest of the Nenex are striving for.

00:25:30.200 We all have children, grandfathers, grandchildren,

00:25:36.140 and, you know, that's our goal.

00:25:38.500 That's what gets us moving.

00:25:39.640 That's why we have these ancestors behind us.

00:25:43.740 My mother was Sishwiaki.

00:25:46.180 She was the president of Olson College

00:25:48.400 and a big pusher of education.

00:25:51.440 She would often tell me,

00:25:53.160 we have to have a computer in one hand

00:25:54.960 and a drum in the other hand,

00:25:56.760 it's important to know that traditional historical knowledge

00:26:01.060 that makes you Siksika Eguan,

00:26:04.020 that is unique from any other group of people

00:26:08.680 in the world.

00:26:11.540 But you also have to have that modern day education

00:26:14.920 and those technology and those tools

00:26:17.720 that are gonna keep you as that modern day buffalo.

00:26:21.120 So it's those words that I hear from my mother,

00:26:25.620 my grandfather, Cecil, my great-grandfather, Akinem.

00:26:29.620 He was a chief, this is his design, one of his designs.

00:26:33.280 So that's some of the ways we honor our elders,

00:26:36.200 our grandfathers, is our designs, our beadworks.

00:26:39.620 And it's pushing this work forward.

00:26:43.440 That's not just me standing up here.

00:26:45.960 There's a long line of Chief Crowful, 0.99

00:26:47.360 it's all the way back to Ischipo, Moxica,

00:26:49.820 head signer one of the black the blackfoot treaty right across my shoulder here so anyway i could

00:26:56.300 be up here all day i think my time's running out but i just want to thank again my council

00:27:01.740 and nh for all the support and pushing this forward as well as the blackfoot council

00:27:07.500 the blackfoot tech council they've done a lot of legwork to push this forward as well as our

00:27:13.660 elders and our community members because you know we want to make sure we can reach all those areas

00:27:19.740 because again it's about equitable partnerships equitable opportunities that is going to really

00:27:26.940 push alberta and push canada to that next level so thank you ministers and i look forward to

00:27:32.620 working with you more and more on these kind of initiatives and i like to say um have a good day

00:27:49.740 everybody Chief Crowfoot thank you all for joining us today for this exciting

00:27:59.400 announcement we'll now move on to the period of the media questions I'd like

00:28:04.080 to invite the ministers team to moderate this session thank you Cory we're gonna

00:28:12.900 move into the media Q&A for any local media in the room please line up at the

00:28:16.240 microphone which is placed behind the camera there and we will start on the phones. Operator, can you please

00:28:22.220 put through? We have a question from Alex Bollingall. Can you hear me okay? Is this my voice

00:28:37.220 sounding in the room? Yes, we can hear you. Okay. I just have a question for the minister about the

00:28:44.380 rural pop-up for the carbon price rebate.

00:28:48.540 There's been some criticism that the rural pop-up

00:28:52.520 is not available in some communities that consider themselves

00:28:56.440 rural. So I'm wondering what your response is to that

00:29:00.100 and whether the government is open to reviewing the dividing line

00:29:04.360 or how it distinguishes between rural and urban communities

00:29:08.320 in doling out those rebates.

00:29:11.660 Look, thanks for the question and thanks for virtually being here today.

00:29:16.660 The rural top-up does apply in Alberta and a family of four gets $2,200 when that comes into place.

00:29:23.660 We increase the rural top-up to 20% because we know things are different in rural Canada,

00:29:27.660 but in Alberta a family of four will be getting just over $2,200 when it comes to the doubling of the top-up comes up in effect in April.

00:29:38.660 yes sorry that doesn't answer my question about um how the government divides um rural communities

00:29:48.020 from urban communities in deciding who gets those rebates there are some communities defined as

00:29:53.380 rural in some places that consider themselves or could define the urban stories that consider

00:29:58.340 themselves rural but they don't get the top of so is that something that you guys are grappling

00:30:03.380 with and is that something you're willing to look at and fix so the formula that's used is

00:30:07.540 done by statistics canada and it's uh that's a formula that's used i know it's been brought up

00:30:12.980 to environment climate change canada because they're the ones that disseminate this program

00:30:16.980 but for now that's the formula that's the program that's used it's the stats canada definition

00:30:22.900 thank you minister thank you alex operator can you please put your next question is from

00:30:28.420 catherine grifkowski over today please go ahead good afternoon discussions for minister glubish

00:30:34.820 Looking at budget 2024 in the 2023-2024 forecast, I see a $167 million decrease in the grant funding for the Alberta Broadband Strategy.

00:30:48.460 And a lot of that grant money has been reprofiled with a lot of it coming at the end, 2026-2027.

00:30:55.880 What was behind the reprofiling of those grants?

00:31:00.460 Yeah, thank you for the question.

00:31:01.720 So as you may know, the Alberta government has committed $390 million in total to the broadband initiative over a four-year period.

00:31:13.160 And of course, we had a great ambition to try and spread that out evenly over those four years.

00:31:18.700 But what we found was to get through the due diligence on all of the applications that were coming forward to the Universal Broadband Fund

00:31:26.500 that now we are jointly administering on Alberta projects with the federal government.

00:31:30.620 it took us a little longer than we would have liked to get the first few tranches of projects

00:31:38.060 approved, funded, and shovels in the ground. And so as a result, money that we had originally

00:31:44.040 anticipated being going out the door a little bit earlier is being pushed back a little bit farther

00:31:48.980 into the later years of that commitment. But the good news is we believe we're still on track to

00:31:53.740 the goal of, by 2027, reaching universal connectivity. And we're working hard to get

00:31:59.460 that done. And today's announcement, I think, is a great step forward demonstrating that

00:32:03.560 we're getting dollars out the door, we're getting shovels in the ground, we're getting

00:32:06.100 real projects built.

00:32:07.640 Catherine, do you have a follow-up?

00:32:09.940 Yeah, and you had mentioned how important this connectivity is to other strategies,

00:32:15.620 virtual health care, education, rural economic development. How is that going to impact

00:32:23.780 strategies in other ministries?

00:32:26.500 well i think you know you heard me talk a little bit earlier and you heard minister hutchings talk

00:32:32.980 a little bit earlier about all the reasons why connectivity is so important and and that is why

00:32:37.220 uh the government of alberta is committed to deploying 390 million dollars over the next four

00:32:42.020 years to to get us to universal connectivity and and as i said earlier also you know there's not

00:32:50.180 an aspect of our daily lives that is not touched by technology and without connectivity that

00:32:55.060 technology is useless so we've got to get this done i'm looking forward to working with all of

00:33:01.060 my colleagues in every different government department to look for ways to use more technology

00:33:05.860 and how we deliver services so we can deliver better faster and smarter services to every

00:33:10.820 single albertan no matter where they live in the province and so when you take together our

00:33:15.860 initiatives on bringing up more technology into the services we deliver coupled with better

00:33:20.660 connectivity to every Albertan by 2027 that's a recipe for success and if I

00:33:26.660 might just add you know technology is changing as Minister Gloobie said daily

00:33:31.140 when you see applications in the agriculture field when you see

00:33:34.220 applications for small businesses you know the when you have an active and

00:33:39.040 virtual presence online your customer doesn't have to walk in the door now

00:33:44.100 your customer can find you online and there's stories as Nate's heard and I've

00:33:48.080 heard of the benefits of having this connection it's for health care as we alluded to earlier

00:33:52.800 and it's for telling the story of where we are today charlotte was telling me how they're revamping

00:33:58.000 the web presence here this is how you get your story out many many ways but the the new digital

00:34:04.000 world is there and another comment on how we do the due diligence on the pro on the um when the

00:34:09.520 applications are submitted both our levels of government do incredible due diligence we're

00:34:14.480 We're responsible for taxpayers' money.

00:34:16.420 So applications are assessed on technology that's being used.

00:34:20.440 We want to make sure that technology is scalable and it's great for the future.

00:34:24.680 We want to make sure that it's affordable.

00:34:26.380 We want to make sure that there's no overlapping.

00:34:29.540 And that's, we do the work on the ground.

00:34:32.860 So before the projects are announced to make sure that it's best use of taxpayers' money

00:34:37.200 to do our both goals, our end goal is similar.

00:34:39.880 We want to get all Canadians, all Albertans connected to reliable, affordable, high-speed internet.

00:34:44.480 Great. Thank you, ministers. Last call, if there's any media in the room.

00:34:51.540 Great. Operator, can you please put through our next caller?

00:34:56.260 There are no other callers in queue at this time.

00:34:58.880 Awesome. Thank you very much, everyone. That concludes our media.

Western Standard - March 06, 2024

Improving high-speed internet access in rural Alberta.

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