Supernet cash from Ottawa a priority for new minister

Service Alberta Minister Nate Glubish wants Ottawa to compensate Alberta for improvements to rural high-speed internet through the provincial Supernet program.

The Supernet high-speed broadband program, which came online in 2005, connects around 4,200 public institutions — libraries, schools, hospitals, etc. — in 429 Alberta communities.

Last year, Bell was awarded a $50-million, 10-year contract to run the service, taking it from the hands of rival Axia.

The program isn’t without issues. A recent auditor general report slammed the province for failing to monitor Supernet’s performance.

But Glubish contends Alberta deserves a gold star and some cash for establishing the program.

“We absolutely need recognition from the federal government for the $1 billion Albertans have spent over the last 18 years to build the Alberta Supernet,” he told Postmedia in a recent interview.

“(The program) is unprecedented anywhere in the rest of the country.”

The federal government recently unveiled a new broadband fund initiative and Glubish wants Ottawa to consider Alberta for a chunk of that money as a kind of back payment for Supernet.

Questions over rural internet strategy

Fighting for that cash is just one rural internet priority for the Service Alberta minister.

He’s also trying to get more details about the new federal program and how it might fund partnerships between multiple levels of government and the private sector.

“This is too big of a cost and too big of a project to do as a provincial government on our own,” Glubish said.

His department is also in the midst of getting the most up-todate information to map highspeed infrastructure. The problem is that’s proprietary information, but Glubish is hoping good relationships with internet providers will help.

“We need to be more strategic in our approach to make sure we don’t overbuild the infrastructure and duplicate these expenses and the best place to start is to build some relationships with the key stakeholders who will have a hand in building whatever comes next,” he said.

One of those companies is Telus, which told Postmedia in a statement it has a “collaborative relationship” with the provincial government, including sharing the location and details of infrastructure. The company said it’s investing $4.2 billion in internet infrastructure through 2020.

But when it comes to the long-awaited rural broadband strategy promised by a series of former Service Alberta ministers, Glubish is making no promises.

He’s not ruling out a strategy, but said he needs to wrap his head around where the province is at and how Ottawa can chip in before he pens a plan.

“Once we have all of that information, we’ll have a lot more to say,” he said.

“Service Alberta has been a bit of a transient ministry. We’ve had a lot of ministers in the last five years and perhaps that is partly why this issue has fallen by the wayside. My intention is not to be transient in this ministry. My intention is to be here for a while.”

Municipalities not waiting around

As Glubish wrestles with improving clunky, sluggish rural internet, the Town of Viking has taken matters into its own hands by creating a municipal wireless broadband network for the community of around 1,100 people.

“Both the federal and provincial governments have had all these wonderful programs over a number of years to introduce high speed to rural communities and you know what we’ve got so far? Bupkis. We’ve got nothing,” Don Mcleod, the town’s chief accounting officer, recently told Postmedia.

“Rather than wait around for another 10 years … we just took it upon ourselves to look for something that would suit our needs.”

The Supernet program brought high-speed internet to the Viking library, which the town used to install a wireless hub on top of a grain elevator.

“Basically, if you can see the grain elevator from your farm, you can get this service,” Mcleod said.

“For us to stay alive out here, we need to be inventive. We need to be seeking how to bring people in and new sources of revenue for the town. You just can’t keep adding tax dollars.”

This is too big of a cost and too big of a project to do as a provincial government on our own. nate glubish