CRTC Commissioner updates municipalities on connectivity and broadcasting

Bram Abramson, Commissioner for Ontario at the CRTC, updated the Ontario Small Urban Municipalities conference on the CRTC’s ongoing work and encouraged applications to the Broadband Fund’s fourth call.

• Main announcement/action: The CRTC encouraged municipalities to apply and pursue partnerships with service providers for the Broadband Fund’s fourth call (open until mid-August 2026), and highlighted that the Broadband Fund has awarded CA$770 million across 326 communities to date. The Commissioner also reminded municipalities of the March 31, 2027 switchover from Enhanced 9-1-1 to Next Generation 9-1-1 and urged those not ready to consider alternate arrangements.
• Background and other details: The speech summarized CRTC activity on local broadcasting oversight (including the Online News Act and revised Broadcasting Act implementation), connectivity and pole-access rules (including tightened timelines and small-cell attachments for 5G), consumer-protection code consolidation plans, and recent decisions requiring provider-by-provider publication of coverage information and outage notification requirements for service providers.