Leila Wright, Vice-President, Telecommunications
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC)
Check against delivery
Good afternoon.
I would like to begin by acknowledging that we are gathered on the traditional territories of the Lekwungen-speaking peoples of the Esquimalt and Songhees Nations. I thank them and pay respect to their Elders.
Thank you for inviting me to speak with you at CCSA Connect 2025. I am joined by Nirmala Naidoo, the CRTC's regional Commissioner for Alberta and the Northwest Territories, and Stéphanie Paquette, regional Commissioner for Quebec. It is nice to see so many familiar faces in the room, and we look forward to spending time with everyone over the next couple days.
I would like to thank the organizers for putting together such an engaging conference. It looks like every session has been crafted to feature knowledgeable panelists speaking about highly relevant topics. I know we will all benefit from Duncan Stewart's foresight in the "View to 2030" plenary. I am also looking forward to the discussion on product packaging and customer retention to learn how companies are creating compelling offers for Canadians. And I am interested in learning more about how providers are using AI. I think we are going to learn a lot in a very short amount of time.
I always look forward to the opportunity to meet with and learn from you all. Conferences like this give us the opportunity to go beyond our own four walls and share our perspectives with others in the industry. Maybe it is just me, but stories stick in my head better when they are lived.
Let me give you an example. Over the past two and a half years that I have been in my role at the CRTC, I have been able to get out on the road and meet some of you where you work and live. These trips are always impactful, as they help us appreciate not just your day-to-day operations, but also the positive effect you have on your communities. We get to see how you enrich your neighbours by helping them access education and healthcare. How you create new opportunities for local businesses. And how you contribute to the social fabric of your communities as sponsors of community events and local sports teams. To say it simpler: these trips help us understand the unique aspects that make you you.
So that is why I want to use our time today to highlight the importance of conversation and engagement. Kendal Netmaker-an Indigenous entrepreneur from Sweetgrass First Nation-said it well: "listen with the intent of understanding, rather than merely responding." Whether it be a coffee chat or a CRTC proceeding, by listening to understand, we can deepen our knowledge of each other and find better solutions to common problems.
Through my remarks this afternoon, I want to speak about how conversation and engagement helps us build that better understanding. I will start by speaking about two of the CRTC's recent key files as examples of how we seek to understand different perspectives in arriving at regulatory decisions. From there, I will talk about how the need for ongoing conversations is becoming more important as we move forward together in uncertain times. And then I will end by setting out an invitation for us all to start those conversations today.
So let me start by sharing how conversations and engagement have been crucial on some of the CRTC's recent key files.
First off: you may have seen our latest releases on network resiliency from earlier this month. They include a new CRTC policy on service outage notifications, and two new consultations asking how we can help reduce the frequency and lower the impact of outages.
I will focus first on service outage notifications. In requiring providers to notify us of their outages, the CRTC has two main objectives. First, we want to ensure that key government authorities know about major outages so they can help to reduce their impact on Canadians. And second, we want to share information about outages publicly so that everyone can learn from them. Providers can use outage reports to avoid similar outages in the future. Canadians can use them to learn the facts of an outage. And governments can use them to identify trends, which could help limit outages going forward.
Determining the best way to achieve those benefits required listening and understanding. During that proceeding, the CRTC received submissions from 106 intervenors, including consumer groups, providers, governments, and individuals. As part of that record, some intervenors emphasized that new regulatory requirements can be challenging for smaller or medium-sized providers. And so, the CRTC worked to balance the benefit of notification with the burden that it places on different industry participants.
On the same day we published the outage notification decision, we also launched two consultations to improve network resiliency. The first asks how CRTC can promote robust networks across Canada. That proceeding is open for comment until December 3, and I strongly encourage you to participate in the conversation.
The second consultation will help ensure Canadians have the information they need during an outage. Through this proceeding, the CRTC is considering how customers can receive meaningful and timely updates during an outage, as well as the possibility of refunds or bill credits once it is resolved. The deadline for submissions in that proceeding is November 13.
Of course, more central than making sure networks are resilient is ensuring that networks are there in the first place. So, the second area I want to discuss is the CRTC's Broadband Fund. Let me take a moment to provide some background about the program.
The CRTC is part of a broad effort by all levels of government to connect Canadians to high-speed Internet service. In 2019, when we published our first call for funding applications, only 87% of Canadian households were connected at the Universal Service Objective levels of 50/10 unlimited Internet. Since then, we are making steady progress toward this goal, and our latest public statistics show more than 95% of Canadian households are now connected.
But, beyond that macro number, we still have some significant work to do. In rural areas, about 80% of households connected. And in the territories and on First Nations Reserves, about 60% are connected.
We know the houses left to connect are the hardest and most expensive ones to reach. At the same time, we know that a big part of what you do is to provide services in areas where others do not. And our Broadband Fund is set up to help you in connecting rural, remote, and Indigenous communities across Canada.
To date, the CRTC has committed more than $750 million to help improve high-speed Internet and cellphone services in over 290 communities. These projects connect essential institutions like schools, health care facilities, and community centres, and contribute significantly to the social fabric of towns and villages across the country. And, to date, about 80% of the funds that we have allocated have been awarded to providers other than the large incumbents.
So, the obvious question is how can you access that funding? What I can tell you is we issue public calls to solicit applications for funding. We are currently finishing up our assessment of applications received during our third call, and we expect to launch a fourth call in the near future. So stay tuned for that.
Now, let me get back to our theme of conversations. Just a short while ago, we celebrated the six-year anniversary of our first call for applications to the Broadband Fund. Over that time, the CRTC has learned a lot and so have those companies who have gone through the application, award, and construction processes. We have been working to harness that knowledge and refresh our approach through our Broadband Fund Policy Review.
Late last year, we issued our first decision from that review. That decision was informed by comments we received from 75 intervenors during our consultation. Through those submissions, we heard that some found it complex and costly to apply for funding. So, we took steps to simplify our application process. From other groups, we heard that our process of evaluating projects ended up taking too long. So, our decision includes measures to speed up our evaluation of projects. By listening we were able to make changes that will help get more Canadians connected faster.
Our work in updating the Broadband Fund continues. We expect to publish a second decision from that consultation in the near future. So that is also something to look forward to.
Both the example from the Broadband Fund, and the example from our resiliency work, show how understanding the perspectives of a diverse industry translate into balanced, effective, and responsive regulation.
So, with that, I am done talking about the past. Let me now talk about the future, and how we can continue to improve through more conversations and engagement going forward.
I want to start by highlighting the opportunities available to participate in the CRTC's proceedings. Our consultations are open and public, which means everyone can put their views in front of the CRTC on any file before it. The process is as simple as sharing your perspectives via our website. But I also think that true understanding also requires us to go beyond the confines of any one issue before the CRTC. That is what I want to talk about next.
At the CRTC, we have been spending a lot of time lately thinking about how we can evolve our approaches to be a more modern regulator. Our main job is to analyze the evidence of proceedings and establish regulatory frameworks that support a healthy and competitive industry. That process necessarily involves an element of prediction as to how the future will unfold.
Of course, predicting the future is hard to do in the simplest of times. And, as we all know, these are not simple times. The world is changing. Providers are making generational investments to replace copper with fibre. New business models, like LEO satellite and AI-enabled services, are entering the market. There is always a question of what tomorrow will bring. So how can we create and manage regulatory frameworks in the face of that uncertainty?
One thing I know is that our approach cannot be to "set it and forget it." We need regulatory humility and a recognition that our frameworks have to adapt and evolve as the world changes. And one of the best ways to do that is through honest and frank conversations.
Conversations, outside of regulatory proceedings, help us stay up to speed with developments in the industry and how they may affect your business.
Ultimately, we want everyone's views to be submitted on the record of proceedings so that CRTC Commissioners have the best information to make decisions from. But we also need to build understanding beyond that which can be communicated in a regulatory submission. And I believe that understanding comes from meeting more and talking more. You can reach out directly to me, and we also have a wide range of dedicated and experienced people at the CRTC who are happy to discuss our work and the challenges that you are facing.
With that all said, it is fitting that I am closing off today's remarks back where I started: with a focus on conversation. I hope that today will be the start of many new conversations to come.
Thank you.
