Question Period Note: CONNECTING FAMILIES 2.0

How is the Government of Canada addressing Internet affordability in Canada for those who need it most?

• Canadians need access to high-quality Internet services at affordable prices.
• Through the Government of Canada’s Connecting Families initiative, Internet service providers (ISPs) participate voluntarily to provide discounted home Internet to hundreds of thousands of low-income households.
• Connecting Families complements the government’s Connectivity Strategy, which aims to provide all Canadians with access to high-speed Internet.
• The government will continue to encourage participation from other ISPs across the country to further bridge gaps in affordability for Canadians.

• The Connecting Families initiative was originally announced through Budget 2017 ($13.2 million over five years) to help close gaps in Internet affordability.

• On April 1, 2022, Connecting Families 2.0 was launched and introduced significantly faster speeds and increased the data usage compared to Connecting Families 1.0.

• This new phase also broadened eligibility from families receiving the maximum Canada Child Benefit (CCB) to include seniors receiving the maximum Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS).

• Since 2018, approximately 82,500 households have signed up, nearly 20% of which did not have a home connection prior to this initiative.

In November 2018, the Government of Canada officially launched the Connecting Families initiative to help bridge the digital divide by ensuring more Canadian families could access home Internet. Through this initiative, Internet service providers (ISPs) participate voluntarily, without government subsidy, to offer low-cost Internet plans to eligible low-income households. Six ISPs were part of the original launch of the initiative, and an additional nine have since joined. The first phase of the initiative offered a $10 Internet plan with 10/1 Mbps speeds and 100 GB of data per month for low-income families who received the maximum Canada Child Benefit (CCB). During the first phase, over one million invitations letters were sent and more than 75,000 have benefitted from low-cost Internet.

On April 1, 2022, the second phase of the initiative (CFI 2.0) was launched, which introduced significantly faster speeds of 50/10 Mbps and a minimum of 200 GB of data for $20/month. The existing $10 offer with current speeds remains available to households that are satisfied with their package. CFI 2.0 also broadened eligibility beyond low-income families to include low-income seniors. Seniors receiving the maximum Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) were chosen at this time because seniors are among the lowest of all underrepresented groups to have access to the Internet, according to the 2018 Canadian Internet Use Survey (CIUS). The 2018 CIUS showed that only 71.4% of low income people have access and 77.6% of seniors use the Internet at home, compared to 94% of all Canadians. Since the launch of the second phase, an additional 7,500 households have joined the initiative.