The Saskatchewan NDP would take immediate steps to improve the province’s rural telecommunications network and enhance rural broadband services, says Cathy Sproule, the party’s agriculture critic.
However, details on how that would be accomplished and how much it would cost have yet to be finalized.
If elected, “we are going to be expanding the service that’s available throughout the province,” Sproule said.
“The actual commitment is, we will improve cell coverage in northern Saskatchewan and expand SaskTel broadband internet service throughout the province. I don’t have any more detail that that right now, but that’s the basic concept that we’re looking at.”
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Telecommunications service for Saskatchewan’s farmers and rural residents was one of several topics discussed during the Why Ag Matters panel discussion in Saskatoon last week.
The event included representatives from five political parties who answered a series of pre-distributed questions in a moderated town hall format.
Rick Swenson, leader of the Progressive Conservative party, said the province must make improvement of rural telecommunications a higher priority if it plans to attract more people and investment to smaller communities.
He said rural residents that are running businesses or raising families want the same level of service that’s available to residents in larger urban centres.
“If we don’t have these services, we aren’t going to stay in rural Saskatchewan,” Swenson said.
“Plain and simple, people won’t stay in their communities (and) they won’t build businesses … so it’s a priority that has to be changed.”
Swenson said profits generated through SaskTel should be reinvested in the province’s telecommunications system.
Sask Party candidate Lyle Stewart, who served as agriculture minister in the previous government, acknowledged that rural internet services are still inadequate in certain parts of the province.
“We’ve lobbied SaskTel to do better and they have done better, but that’s certainly one place where there is still room for improvement,” he said.
brian.cross@producer.com
