100 per cent high speed

A future federal Liberal government will bring high-speed Internet to every rural, remote and Northern community across Canada announced Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff Tuesday morning in Thunder Bay.

Within three years of being elected Ignatieff committed to 100 per cent high-speed connectivity for all of Canada.

"Too many rural communities lack access to the same standard of public service that other Canadians take for granted," he said. "We have to fix that unbalance and we will."

Right now Canada doesn’t have the digital infrastructure to make remote and rural communities high-speed accessible, Ignatieff said, adding that fibre optics, broadband and cellular towers are the railway ties of this century.

Currently 800,000 Canadians don’t have access to high-speed Internet and Canada is ranked 10th in the world in Internet connectivity; 10 years ago the country held the No. 2 spot.

"The rest of the world is racing ahead and we’re standing still," said Ignatieff.

The Liberals plan to use up to $500 million of the $4 billion expected to be netted from the 2011 spectrum auction to bring connectivity at 1.5 megabytes per second to rural and remote areas. They also plan to increase that bandwidth by Canada’s 150th anniversary in 2017.

Ignatieff said the Conservative government has committed to increasing high-speed Internet access but haven’t done anything in four years; he also said he believes they will put the $4 billion from the spectrum auction into general revenue.

The Liberal plan is to, if elected, tender the service to current Internet providers, adding with improved Internet coverage, there will also be improved cell phone coverage in remote communities.

"They put together a business plan; we get the lowest bid and then work out the appropriate subsidy from the federal government to get this done," Ignatieff said. "The Conservatives have allocated money but none of its been spent and we’re falling further and further behind other modern and advanced countries and as we do so economic opportunities just drain away from northern remote Canada."

The commitment to high-speed Internet access is the fourth and final part of the Liberals’ Rural Canada Matters initiative.