Rural internet contracts under fire
SuperNet service not monitored effectively, auditor general says
EDMONTON The province needs to reboot its contracts to operate the $1-billion SuperNet that provides internet in rural areas, says Alberta’s auditor general.
SuperNet, which serves 429 communities across the province, costs about $40 million per year to operate and an additional $16 million in annual maintenance.
The high-speed internet service, which was first announced in 2001 and completed in 2005, connects to schools, hospitals, libraries and government offices. Since its launch, the service hasn’t been monitored effectively, said auditor general Doug Wylie Wednesday.
His report found that the province extended SuperNet contracts until 2018 despite known deficiencies.
“Albertans have paid for three more years of a contract that the department assessed was not meeting desired results,” the report said.
In 2013, the then-Progressive Conservative government extended the SuperNet contracts slated to end in 2015. No significant changes to the terms were made.
“The department needed to extend the SuperNet operating agreement because it was not prepared for any other option,” the report said.
Earlier this year, Service Alberta announced the latest contract to operate the service would go to Bell Canada.
“The department may continue to spend money without knowing the true extent to which desired results are being achieved,” the report said.
Service Alberta Minister Brian Malkinson said the province adopted the auditor’s recommendations when it signed the latest contract, which includes more oversight and better access for internet-service providers in rural areas.
“The report … is just an excellent example of something our government had to come through and fix,” he said. “Albertans weren’t getting good value out of the previous SuperNet contract.”
The new contract with Bell is valued at $500 million for 10 years, or $1 billion for 20 years, said the province.
Malkinson said Service Alberta will be putting the details of the contract online once it’s finalized.
He said the NDP didn’t terminate the contract with Axia when elected to government in 2015 because the province didn’t want to repeat past mistakes.
“We wanted to make sure we took the time to properly construct the RFP for a new contract,” he said.
Wylie recommended that the province develop better processes for monitoring contracts in general.
“We identified this contract specifically as a baseline to test the system,” he said at a news conference. “We were looking for contracts that were complex, extended a significant period of time, and were essentially of high risk.”
It was the first report from Wylie since he took office as auditor general in April.
The report covered a range of issues including oilsands monitoring, wildfire management programs and affordable housing. It also followed up on past audits.
In 2016, the auditor general found that Alberta needed better guidelines for contracts with companies hired to transport bodies from rural areas to the medical examiner’s offices in Edmonton and Calgary.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner implemented recommendations to increase the number of pre-qualified contractors, said the report Wednesday.
In recent years, about 1,700 deceased Albertans were transported annually for medical examination, costing about $1.65 million per year, said the report.
Wylie also said provincial monitoring of wildfire prevention programs could be improved.
He recommended the department of agriculture and forestry publicly report on its FireSmart programs, which help communities reduce the risk of wildfire and plan for the worst-case scenario.
In 2017, the department spent about $30 million on wildfire prevention, the report said.