The committee continued its study of Bill C-268, an act respecting the spectrum policy framework for Canada, hearing from the bill's sponsor, the mayor of a rural Quebec municipality, and two senior Industry Canada officials responsible for spectrum and telecommunications policy.
Michel-Henri Goyette, Mayor of Martinville, described a community of nearly 500 people twenty minutes from Sherbrooke that still lacks adequate mobile coverage, calling the situation worse than twenty-five years ago because landlines have disappeared. He said 911 service is unreliable, first responders cannot communicate on scene, and electronic monitoring bracelets used to protect victims of domestic violence are rendered useless in areas without signal, with women's shelters in the Coaticook RCM affected. He recounted that Martinville was ready to install signal repeaters but was told installation falls under federal jurisdiction and required a licensed telecommunications company, and no company would invest given the low return; he urged decision-makers to act quickly so reliable cellular service reaches all Canadians.
Matthew Kellison, Director General of the Spectrum Policy Branch at ISED, explained that the spectrum policy framework is the policy foundation for spectrum management, with the objective of maximizing economic and social benefits from a finite public resource, and that rural connectivity remains a guiding priority reflected in the 2023 five-year spectrum outlook. He cited deployment requirements that ramp up over time, smaller licence areas, the local licensing framework launched last year, the access licensing framework making unused rural spectrum available, and a 2025 supplemental mobile coverage by satellite framework. He said Bill C-268 reinforces existing work by requiring a five-year review with stakeholder consultation and a report to Parliament, and by requiring the CRTC to establish a process ensuring accuracy of mobile coverage data, consistent with a CRTC process launched in January.
Andre Arbour, Director General of the Telecommunications Policy Branch, said spectrum is only one piece of the connectivity puzzle, since a tower also needs sustainable infrastructure and sometimes electricity, and pointed to complementary tools including the universal broadband fund, the CRTC's broadband fund, roaming rules, and emerging satellite-to-cell service, with ISED issuing rules in 2025 and about three new constellations expected within roughly two years. He said the CRTC, not ISED, regulates carriers and is expected within weeks to issue technical criteria for coverage data, possibly with three service levels tied to real-world uses such as a short call or lower-speed data. He confirmed that the cooperation model used with Quebec for fibre could be applied to cellular investment, and committed to look into total Canadian NG911 investment, noting 911 is a shared federal-provincial responsibility.
Kellison told Dan Mazier that nothing in a spectrum licence requires a company to exceed the minimum population coverage in its deployment requirement, and defended the department's decision not to accelerate 3800 megahertz deployment timelines by saying it is challenging to set a level that meets objectives without compromising providers' ability to offer service, noting requirements have strengthened and licence areas have shrunk. He agreed to provide a list of licensees that failed deployment requirements over ten years, with penalties, and acknowledged that higher-frequency spectrum travels less far and requires more towers, though it offers more data throughput. He said the framework has not been formally reviewed since 2007 partly because it is a general document supplemented by the five-year spectrum outlook, and that an interim update was issued in June; he also said satellite will complement rather than replace towers.
On tower siting, Kellison said a consultation on streamlining the process closed recently, that licence conditions already require builders to consult municipalities, and that ISED is not suggesting municipal consultation should end but is asking whether it can be done more efficiently; he agreed to provide the committee a summary of the comments. On competition, he said set-aside measures have been used for about fifteen years, typically paired with resale and transfer restrictions and deployment requirements so that smaller or regional firms actually deploy rather than speculate on a public resource.
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