Frustrated Goulais man asks province ‘when is better internet coming?’

In 2020, there are still many people in northern and rural areas still struggling with limited access to reliable and affordable high speed internet.

One such person is Christopher Maltais, a Goulais River resident who, along with his wife and teenage sons, are finding themselves ‘rationed’ to how many hours they may use the internet in order for the boys to complete their virtual learning.

This in spite of repeated announcements of funding, by both the Ontario and federal governments over the years, to provide more fixed and mobile wireless broadband internet access services in under served areas of the country.

“We’re 1.4 kilometres past the cutoff for unlimited internet. Last year (referring to the 2019-2020 school year) when COVID shut everything down, the schools were all closed and our boys (now 13 and 16) were unable to attend school, but they didn’t have the option to learn at home (virtually), not being able to get unlimited internet. It isn’t because we don’t want to pay for it, it’s just not available,” Maltais said.

While Maltais and his wife were fortunate enough to still be able to drive to the Sault and carry on with their indoor jobs despite a blitz of COVID job losses and layoffs, their sons had to sit on benches outside Mountain View Public School in Goulais River (in cold March weather at first, with all schools closed between March and June) to connect to the school’s Wi-Fi in order to download ADSB learning materials.

Maltais praised ADSB staff for delivering learning materials to his family’s doorstep and teachers for keeping in touch with his sons by phone.

His sons are now taking the school bus to their respective schools in the Sault since the option of in-class learning returned in September.

Frustrated with the internet situation, Maltais first contacted Algoma-Manitoulin MPP Michael Mantha’s Elliot Lake office in the spring regarding his family’s internet plight.

“Last April (Ontario Premier Doug) Ford said the government was going to supply 21,000 i-Pads with unlimited data (to families in need), but at the time I called our local school board and they had not received any of those. We have a laptop and an i-Pad so we didn’t need a device, but we needed the internet usage. I thought we were a small minority in the province that didn’t have access but there’s actually a lot more people all over Ontario that have the same problems.”

“When we turn our hub on, basically it’s on for the boys to do their homework (after a regular school day in the Sault), then it goes off. We have 60 gigabytes a month, and downloading educational materials and videos, that takes up a lot of usage. We have Netflix but we may be able to watch only two or three movies a month because we don’t want to use up too much of our data, then the boys won’t have those gigabytes, and when we hit our 60 gigabyte limit we’re paying a lot more when we go over.”

“We’ve tried many internet companies and there’s just nobody that offers it here,” Maltais said in his search for reliable and affordable high speed internet.

“You can get satellite internet, but again, you’re paying a fortune.”    

“His (Mike Mantha’s Elliot Lake) staff, since September, when I contacted his office again, has been very helpful and they sent my concerns to the Queen’s Park office,” Maltais said. 

“I can let you know that Mr. Mantha and the Ontario NDP have continuously asked the government for the past two years to invest $1 billion in broadband infrastructure to insure access to internet everywhere in the province,” a Mantha staffer wrote in correspondence with Maltais.

“We also pressed the government to promptly act to address the situation your family is in. The government has put a lot of confidence in e-learning at the beginning of the pandemic, but we know many communities don’t have proper access to high-speed internet, which makes it very difficult for children to have access to education. This complicates the situation for many parents and teachers,” the staffer wrote.

Mantha also mentioned the Maltais family’s specific internet concerns in the Legislature.

“Our government has committed $315 million over five years and on July 9, 2020, we launched the $150 million Improving Connectivity for Ontario (ICON) program, designed to leverage up to $500 million of funding from other levels of government and the private sector to maximize the impact of Ontario’s investment. Applications for the first intake closed on August 21, 2020, and we are targeting the first projects to break ground in spring 2021. Additional information about projects and the communities they will serve will be announced at a later date,” wrote Minister of Infrastructure Laurie Scott in a letter to Maltais.

“I would imagine they would need to put up more towers in order to have this internet available here (in rural communities such as Goulais River).”

For Maltais, his message to the province is ‘show me, don’t tell me.’

“They (the government) say ‘we’re investing money’ or ‘we’re in talks, we’ve had discussions.’ Okay, so when is it actually going to happen? This is important.”