Hon. Dennis Glen Patterson: Honourable senators, there are some points I would like to make on this important issue. One of the realities we need to acknowledge is that we are not the same demographic as those serving in the other place. Many senators are older or have underlying conditions and that does require us to be more vigilant and take more precautions than our counterparts. That is why, in principle, I am in favour of continuing hybrid sittings.

However, before we vote on this motion, I want to put on the record something that we are all aware of but maybe are not actively considering — not every Canadian has access to the same level of internet service required to fully participate in Senate proceedings. In Nunavut, the entire territory lost its internet connection when it rained on a satellite dish in Saskatchewan. That may sound odd, but that is the reality of our satellite-based internet services. I know there are other senators who would be joining our proceedings from rural or remote locations, and I know and share their frustrations when the signal drops in the middle of a statement or when asking a question.

The fact of the matter is that Canada consistently underperforms when compared to internet and wireless service delivery across the world. A recent study conducted by Opensignal showed that Canada came second to last in nearly every category when benchmarked against 24 different OECD countries. We did come first in one category, though; cost per gigabyte. Yes, we have the second-worst availability in service, but we have the highest cost per gigabyte out of the 24 countries examined. I could go on about the fact that Canada is one of the last countries that uses a spectrum auction to line its coffers, as opposed to using it as an opportunity to allocate a vital public resource.

I could talk about the absurdity of only having 60 megahertz available for auction when the International Telecommunications Union has set a standard for 200 megahertz of capacity per provider in order to ensure that consumers receive the proper level of service. Or I could go on about the loopholes being created by our current policy of set-asides and the need for better and stronger measures to foster competition in our telecommunications market.

Instead, I will only say that we clearly have a broken system and poor infrastructure, because it is relevant to this debate. When senators are forced to stay home due to medical reasons or pandemic restrictions, and then are not able to access the level of internet required to fully and actively participate in Senate proceedings and committee work, I would go so far as to say — and I believe — that it’s an infringement of our privileges. We must ensure that we have the tools and every opportunity available to us to exercise our duty and privilege to participate in the work of the Senate.

In the short term, that may mean new technology that ensures we have strong, stable signals when attending the Senate virtually. In the long term, to me that means we need to be firm and consistent in our demand for change. We need to ensure we have better, more transparent, accountable and streamlined decision making when it comes to telecommunications policy.

It means we need to make smart and strategic investments in future infrastructure, and it means we need to really hold our institutions to their promises of making internet affordable and service delivery competitive in every region of this vast and beautiful country. Thank you. Qujannamiik.