Our government talks about artificial intelligence, quantum computing, clean energy and the race to build a modern economy. Ministers at podiums describe Canada as an innovator, a forward-looking leader, a country ready to compete with the world's best. 

Then, in communities like mine, the video call freezes. 

That is the part of the national innovation story that rarely makes it into the speech. Many rural, remote and Indigenous communities still cannot count on the basic internet connection needed to take part in that future. 

In Muscowpetung Saulteaux Nation, we are only about 60 kilometres north of Regina's city centre. That is close enough to see the glow of our digital economy, but far enough to understand how inequitably it has been built. For years, our members were expected to participate in a modern economy without the infrastructure that participation requires. 

The irony is costly. 

I've seen it firsthand. A young adult logging on for a job interview cannot make a good impression when the screen stalls and the conversation becomes a series of apologies. An elder requiring medical care cannot reliably speak to a physician when the connection fails, rendering telehealth out of reach. A small business owner tries to take orders or process payments. 

We are told that Canada is moving online but are left to discover their community has not been properly connected to the world everyone else is moving toward. This is a digital divide and an economic one. 

Internet access is an economic amplifier. When it is reliable and affordable, it strengthens education, employment, entrepreneurship, health care and public safety. It allows people to stay in their communities while working, learning and building companies. When connectivity is weak, every other opportunity becomes weaker too. 

That is why Ottawa's innovation language feels so detached from daily life for Indigenous communities. While 96.4 per cent of all Canadian households have access to high-quality internet, only 65.7 per cent of households on First Nations reserves have access to the same level of service, according to the 2024 CRTC Facilities Survey. Canada ‘s alleged world-class digital economy does not reach everyone. 

The need for regulatory modernization is playing out in communities within driving distance of Parliament Hill. Across northern Ontario, households and businesses remain without broadband access, even as new satellite internet technologies offer faster solutions that don’t break the bank. When Premier Doug Ford moved to block communities from accessing a private satellite option, it exposed a structural problem: Canadians are caught between provincial ideology and federal inaction, with no one focusing on impact on the end user. 

Private providers are now delivering broadband technologies that meaningfully improve service, but federal regulations charged with innovation are not keeping pace. The result is that the tools that could close Canada's connectivity gap are being held back by a framework built for a past era. Minister Joly has both the mandate and the proximity to this problem to act and the communities waiting for connectivity don't have the luxury of a bureaucratic timeline. 

This is especially urgent for satellite internet policies. For many remote and rural areas, satellite is our only connectivity option. Officials have routinely blamed the absence of a global consensus framework for delaying regulatory decisions. Policy updates are taking years, putting communities like my mine, at a disadvantage. 

The rest of the world is adapting quickly. From Germany to Ghana, countries are granting interim or outright approvals for advancing new internet services so access does not fall behind while regulators continue their longer-term work. 

In Muscowpetung, we reached a point where waiting no longer made sense. After years of government inaction, we went directly to industry providers who could help. In 2022, Muscowpetung deployed Starlink to homes on Treaty 4 land, and it changed how we could participate in the broader Canadian economy.  

It proved something important. The barrier was not that solutions were impossible. It was that communities like ours were being asked to wait for a system that was not moving with the urgency required. 

That should trouble anyone who cares about domestic growth. A country that wants higher productivity, stronger labour-force participation, better health outcomes and more small-business growth should understand that connectivity powers our national economic engine. 

This is especially true in Indigenous communities, where the population is young, entrepreneurial and ready to contribute more fully to Canada's economy.  

The Carney government pledged to create broadband access for 100 per cent of Canadians by 2028. That is not fast enough when regulatory changes could empower internet providers to expand access right now.  

Canada and its regulatory bodies could learn how to be a technology leader by looking to other countries: by modernizing satellite spectrum regulations, encouraging internet competition and exercising sovereign decision-making capabilities to serve the public interest. 

Affordable connectivity is not the whole answer to economic growth in Canada, but without it, underserved communities are falling farther behind. Ottawa can keep calling itself a global technology leader. For Canadians without reliable internet, those words will keep buffering. 

Former Chief of the Muscowpetung Saulteaux Nation, former Tribal Chief of the File Hills Qu’Appelle Tribal Council, and current Chief Operating Officer with Muscowpetung Saulteaux Business Developments.  

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