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[31]Ottawa

Bell CEO's high-speed connected cottage in Lac-Sainte-Marie, Que., fuels
bandwidth envy

In a region of Quebec known for spotty internet access, about 100
lakeside households have received a taxpayer-funded hookup to Bell
Fibe's high-speed internet access in recent months. One of those
cottages is owned by Bell CEO Mirko Bibic.

Social Sharing

Mirko Bibic played no role in planning taxpayer-funded hookup of lakeside
properties, company says

[32]Daniel Leblanc, [33]Laurence Martin · CBC News · Posted: Feb 24,
2021 11:41 AM ET | Last Updated: February 24
Bell CEO Mirko Bibic's cottage on Pemichangan Lake, about 120
kilometres north of Ottawa, is one of about 100 households with
high-speed internet, in a region otherwise known for spotty access.
(Laurence Martin/Radio-Canada)

In the municipality of Lac-Sainte-Marie, Que., about an hour's drive
north of Ottawa, one of the easiest ways to rile up local residents is
to ask them about their internet connections.

Whether it's through wireless service, satellite providers or copper
lines, the usual response is that working out of home, having kids
attend online classes or watching movies is a frustrating — and
sometimes impossible — task.

Adding to the frustration is the fact that a small portion of the
municipality lives in another world, digitally speaking, after getting
hooked up to Bell Fibe in recent months. What makes matters even worse,
according to some, is the fact that Bell CEO Mirko Bibic owns one of
the cottages along the southern portion of Pemichangan Lake — which now
has broadband access.

While the region is officially one of the poorest in Quebec, some of
the cottages along Pemichangan are worth over $1 million, with many
owners having primary residences in Ontario or the United States.

About 100 households on Pemichangan, the majority of cottages and
homes on the southern side of the lake, have high-speed access through
Bell Fibe — a service currently unavailable for the hundreds of other
residences in the municipality of Lac-Sainte-Marie and in the
surrounding area. And one made even more important by the COVID-19
pandemic and lockdown orders.

Chantal Lamarche, prefect of the regional body called the MRC de la
Vallée-de-la-Gatineau, said all residences in the area need to be
"treated equally."

"The owners of residences that live here all year round should receive
the same level of service as those who own a million-dollar cottage,"
she said. "Everyone deserves an equitable treatment."
Bibic listens during a CRTC hearing in Gatineau, Que., on Feb. 19,
2020. (Justin Tang/Canadian Press)

CEO played no role, Bell says

The project to expand Fibe into that portion of cottage country was
developed by Bell and approved for government funding by the federal
and Quebec governments in early 2018.

Bell spokesperson Charles Gosselin told Radio-Canada that Bibic played
no role in developing the project or obtaining government funding. He
said the company plans to expand its network according to factors such
as population density, the quality of existing infrastructure and
long-term growth.

"I can guarantee that our rollout is in no way influenced by anyone's
presence or absence. Bell is a serious company that decides on its
investments based on factors of cost effectiveness and viability," said
Gosselin, who is the company's director of government relations.

"Mirko Bibic's presence in the Outaouais region has nothing to do with
our project in Pemichangan Lake or [elsewhere]. There is no link."
Pemichangan Lake is located just east of Highway 105, about an hour's
drive north of Ottawa-Gatineau. (Jérôme Bergeron/Radio-Canada)

Bell is already working on a number of other projects in the area,
including providing high-speed access through a wireless system to
hundreds of residences in Lac-Sainte-Marie, Gosselin said.

"The network reached [Bibic's residence] in January 2020, so it was far
from the first to have access to high-speed internet in the area or the
Outaouais, and it won't be the last," he added.

Bibic and his wife bought land in the area in 2004 when he was senior
vice-president of regulatory matters at Bell. He was named chief
operating officer at the company in 2018 and became CEO in
January 2020. That's also when his cottage was hooked up to Fibe.

The governments of Canada and Quebec provided subsidies to build the
"backbone" of the project, bringing optical fibre to Pemichangan Lake,
while Bell paid the costs of the individual connections of its new
clients.

The cost of the Pemichangan project is not publicly known, but it was
part of a bundle of $3.8 million in projects to connect seven
communities, for which the federal and provincial governments paid a
total of $2.6 million.

Canada's digital divide

The arrival of Bell Fibe along the southern edge of Pemichangan Lake
has created an enclave of wired, high-speed data exchanges within a
broad swath of cottage country north of Ottawa-Gatineau that is known
for spotty or non-existent access.

On one side of this digital divide, there are those who enjoy the
benefits of high speed for work, business, communications and
recreational purposes.

Alan Smith, who owns a cottage on Pemichangan, said he's extremely
satisfied with Bell Fibe, which replaced his previous internet access
through a satellite provider.

"It was very expensive to have poor-quality receptions. [It's] as
simple as that," he said. "Now, for a cheaper price, we've got
high-quality reception."

On the other side of the digital divide are those who are waging a
battle to obtain high-speed access, or who have to contend with a
service that can be slow, unpredictable or at the mercy of the
weather.

Having failed to convince Bell to bring its network to the northern
portion of Pemichangan Lake, some property owners there are trying to
get a connection to the Starlink satellite network, which is currently
being developed by American billionaire Elon Musk.

"It's time we brought high speed to the lake!" wrote Cameron Jackson on
the group's Facebook page.
Bell's project to extend its Fibe network to some cottages on
Pemichangan Lake was approved for federal and provincial funding in
early 2018. (Ryan Remiorz/Canadian Press)

Pauline Sauvé, a longtime resident of Lac-Sainte-Marie, said the
high-speed lines going into the southern portion of Pemichangan Lake
seem like a case of "preferential treatment."

"I think it's not fair," she said. "People who work from home
[and] kids with schoolwork to do — it's hard for them."

In the area to take care of her mother, Rachelle Gauvreau said she's
struggling as she deals with slow internet service and tries to do her
work remotely. One of her solutions is working late in the evening,
when there are fewer people online clogging up the system.

"I brought work with me and it's a problem," she said. "Internet
doesn't work well here."

Bell understands the growing levels of impatience, Gosselin said,
noting the company is part of a broad effort involving other providers
and various levels of government to connect the minority of unconnected
households in the country.

"We are getting to the last communities that are not yet connected,"
the spokesperson said. "Obviously, we are now in areas that are less
densely populated and where offering the service is more complex."
Quebec Premier François Legault, who's trying to fulfil an electoral
promise to offer broadband service across the province, has called on
Bell to connect new customers more quickly. (Jacques Boissinot/Canadian
Press)

Political pressure building

According to federal data, the quality of internet service around
Bibic's cottage stands in sharp contrast with the rest of the region,
where residents in nearby municipalities like Lac-Sainte-Marie and
Kazabuzua don't all have access to high-speed service.

"It's obviously frustrating," said Gary Lachapelle, the mayor of
Lac-Sainte-Marie. "We are in 2021, we should have internet. People in
the cities have it, why shouldn't people in rural areas have it too?"

Caryl Green, the mayor of Chelsea, just north of Gatineau, said there's
often a lack of logic in the development of high-speed networks. Some
residents have access while their immediate neighbours can't get hooked
up.

"They feel left behind by the big companies," she said.

Green said governments and companies should prioritize connections to
primary residences and businesses, especially now.

"That's where people are working from home, where they're schooling
their children and where they're trying to buy online and to support
local businesses," Green said. "So I think if secondary residences,
cottages are getting hooked up… we have to demand that these large
companies respond to the pockets of need that we see within our
municipality."
'We are in 2021, we should have internet. People in the cities have it,
why shouldn't people in rural areas have it too?' asked Chelsea Mayor
Caryl Green. (CBC)

Neither the governments of Canada nor Quebec restrict the use of
subsidies to hook up secondary residences or cottages to the internet.

Access to high-speed internet is an increasingly hot-button political
issue across Canada, with pressure growing on governments to expand the
service to remote parts of the country. The COVID-19 pandemic and a
series of stay-at-home orders have highlighted the fact that high speed
has become an essential service for most families and companies.

In late January, Quebec Premier François Legault directly called on
Bell to connect new customers more quickly, or to provide access to its
telephone poles to other providers such as Videotron. Legault is trying
to fulfil an electoral promise to offer broadband services across the
province.

"There were 340,000 houses to connect, there are still 280,000 to
connect to high speed internet. We have two summers left to do all of
this," Mr. Legault said at a news conference.

Last November, the federal government launched a $1.75-billion fund to
expand broadband services across the country, which was on top of a
$585-million program launched in 2016 to connect 975 communities by
2023. Overall, Ottawa is estimating that at least another 1.2 million
households still need a broadband connection.

Liberal MP Will Amos, who announced federal funding for the Pemichangan
project in 2018, said he was unaware that Bibic was one of the property
owners who was set to receive a broadband connection.

He said the government is working to connect nearly all Canadians by
2026.

"Every Canadian deserves high-speed internet," Amos said.
"Comprehensive, 100 per cent coverage will take billions of dollars of
investments, but it is money well spent because it is going to connect
all Canadians and that is what people expect."
[34]CBC's Journalistic Standards and Practices|[35]About CBC News
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