3/19/23, 9:00 AM Making life more affordable for everyday people « Canada's NDP

Better services all Canadians can rely

on
Canadians depend on the strength of our public
services. But rather than support them, Liberal
and Conservative governments continue to cut
and underfund everything from our health care
system to our postal service. We’ll invest in public
health care, stand up to privatization, restore
door-to-door mail, and more.

Affordable, quality cell phone service and high-speed broadband for all

Now more than ever, Canadians need a fast and reliable internet connection at home to be able to work and go to
school, and we all rely on our cell phones to keep us connected wherever we are. Particularly during the pandemic,
these are essential utilities, yet too many Canadians still struggle to access the affordable the services they need.

More than half of Canadians living in rural areas don’t have access to high-speed internet, and among comparable
countries, Canadians pay some of the highest prices for mobile wireless and broadband subscriptions in the world.

People are being gouged, every month, because instead of standing up for consumers, the Liberal and Conservative
governments have left it to industry to set the prices. The result is that Canadian families are stuck with sky-high
bills, and the profit margins of the Canada’s biggest telecom companies in Canada are over 40 per cent, while two
million Canadians living in rural, remote and Northern areas still don’t have access to reliable internet service. The
only thing worse than cell phone and internet companies gouging consumers are the politicians who let them get
away with it.

It’s time for a government that’s on your side – protecting your pocketbook and delivering the modern services you
need.

New Democrats believe that no matter where you live in Canada, you should be able to stay connected – without
breaking the bank because of unfair gouging. That’s why, until the industry becomes more competitive, we’ll put in
place a price cap to make sure that Canadians aren’t paying more than the global average for their cell phone and
internet bills.

Expanding cell coverage and delivering reliable, affordable broadband internet to every community in Canada is
vital to the economic future of rural Canada and remote communities. But it has been ignored by successive
governments for far too long. That’s why we believe that we need to act urgently to close the digital divide now, not
ten years from now as the Liberal government proposed. We are committed to declaring high-speed internet an
essential service and making sure that every Canadian has access to affordable, reliable high-speed broadband
within four years. This will include starting the process of creating a Crown corporation to ensure the delivery of
quality, affordable telecom services to every community.

In addition, we’ll make sure that providers offer a basic plan for wireless and broadband that is comparable with the
affordable plans that are available in other countries. To put an end to surprise bills, we’ll require companies to offer
unlimited wireless data options at affordable rates, as exist elsewhere in the world, and abolish data caps for
broadband internet.

And finally, to protect Canadians from unfair wireless and internet sales and services practices, we’ll introduce a
Telecom Consumers’ Bill of Rights and put an end to gouging for good.

SHARE  SHARE 

Support our plan to make life more

affordable for people
https://www.ndp.ca/affordability?focus=13934114&nothing=nothing 3/6