Telecommunications in the Far North

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This page is no longer accepting comments as of October 6, 2022, 8:00 PM EDT. Thank you for your participation!

Everyone needs fast, affordable and reliable telecommunications services. It's necessary to participate in today’s economy and society. This is particularly true in underserved places like the Far North, which is home to many Indigenous communities.

The Canadian telecommunications system plays an important role in the reconciliation between Indigenous Peoples and non-Indigenous Canadians. We are looking to improve access to affordable, high-quality telecommunications services. These services help preserve, restore, and promote Indigenous languages and culture, and support some calls to action by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.

Use the tools below to take our survey or tell us your stories! Your comments will help us decide how to improve telecommunications services in the Far North.

You may want to speak at the public hearing or participate in later stages of the consultation. To do so, you need to become a party. This can be done by sending us a formal comment using our intervention form, by fax or by mail. If you want to learn more, go to our website or click on the Information Session tab below to register to our information session.

Information on this consultation is also available in French | Cree | Chipewyan | Inuktitut | Inuinnaqtun.

If you have any questions, please email us at Nord-North@crtc.gc.ca.

This page is no longer accepting comments as of October 6, 2022, 8:00 PM EDT. Thank you for your participation!

Everyone needs fast, affordable and reliable telecommunications services. It's necessary to participate in today’s economy and society. This is particularly true in underserved places like the Far North, which is home to many Indigenous communities.

The Canadian telecommunications system plays an important role in the reconciliation between Indigenous Peoples and non-Indigenous Canadians. We are looking to improve access to affordable, high-quality telecommunications services. These services help preserve, restore, and promote Indigenous languages and culture, and support some calls to action by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.

Use the tools below to take our survey or tell us your stories! Your comments will help us decide how to improve telecommunications services in the Far North.

You may want to speak at the public hearing or participate in later stages of the consultation. To do so, you need to become a party. This can be done by sending us a formal comment using our intervention form, by fax or by mail. If you want to learn more, go to our website or click on the Information Session tab below to register to our information session.

Information on this consultation is also available in French | Cree | Chipewyan | Inuktitut | Inuinnaqtun.

If you have any questions, please email us at Nord-North@crtc.gc.ca.

Improving Internet access

Sometimes it’s more difficult for people living in the Far North to have affordable and high quality Internet compared to other places in Canada. You may answer one or both questions:

1. In your experience, what is stopping you from having high quality, reliable and affordable Internet that meets your needs? 

2. What do you think the CRTC should do to ensure high quality, more reliable and more affordable Internet in the Far North?

These are only two general questions related to our consultation. To see the full list of questions, check our Notice of Consultation

CLOSED: This discussion has concluded.

First and foremost, the CRTC needs to enforce some service guidelines on service providers. Northwestel has a monopoly on services and is perfectly happy to leave a customer completely without service (landline, internet, television) for extended periods of time. It is a shrug of the shoulder and saying they only go to your area on a specific day of the week, and even if you are out of service you will just have to wait until they can get to you. If services are not reliable, maintained and fixed when something happens, it leaves a person in the vast areas of the Yukon (I am in the village of Haines Junction) without alternatives and very isolated ... especially in the dark cold months of fall/winter/spring.

SandyHolmes over 1 year ago

Honestly, I don't understand why we can't have high quality, reliable Internet when we live just outside the City of Whitehorse limits. We have DSL5 (only option) coming into our house and two separate accounts to try and spread usage out. Cell data often works better than DSL5 especially for essential online tasks (working, writing exams, etc.). The most stressful time is around post-secondary exams. The slow upload and download speeds mean it takes longer to write a timed exam and twice, when ProtorU was needed to invigilate, the Internet was not adequate to write the exam.

csparks almost 2 years ago

The major thing that is stopping me from high quality, reliable and affordable Internet that meets my needs, is that all options on the market does not match southern Canada.

Iqaluit cell phone/cell data bill on Bell is $267.75. In Vancouver, the same options is $40.

Trying to leave Bell by switching to Ice Wireless makes my bill $153.94 for 200gb. We used additional data during Christmas to stay in touch with family, and it charged us an additional $47.61. Also, many times, Ice Wireless would have no network errors, causing me to miss calls with family, and zoom calls with coworkers.

I think the CRTC should ask telecoms to commit to maintaining and improving their infrastructure.

Sandi Chan almost 2 years ago
Page last updated: 08 Nov 2023, 08:41 AM