Jeff Colbourne
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jun 05/98) -NorthwesTel is receiving support from some MLAs to see a national fund set up to subsidize telephone service in Northern high-cost areas.

Last Thursday, Yellowknife North MLA Roy Erasmus expressed the need for such a fund.

"Someone has to go out and fix the telephone lines when they get knocked over or something like that," said Erasmus.

"NorthwesTel cannot afford to do all these local services and still compete for long-distance rates that Sprint and AT&T are going to be bringing in. It would be conceivable that some communities might totally lose services that they have been waiting so long to get."

On Monday Public Works and Services Minister Jim Antoine echoed that support and acknowledged concerns over the introduction of competition in the North in 2000 and the risks of losing telephone service or suffering high-cost access.

"In the NWT, it costs about twice as much to provide basic services as it does in other parts of Canada. Without long-distance revenues, those higher costs would have to be reflected in higher local access rates," said Antoine.

"As we move closer to full competition for all telecommunications services, including local service, there is a danger that the quality of service to remote communities will decline because of the high cost of maintaining that service. Yet, it is the remoteness of our communities that makes good telecommunications critically important."

Antoine is encouraging all Northerners to turn out for Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications hearings later this month to express the importance of telecommunications to life and business in the North, their concerns over the high cost of phone service in the North and the lack of services which are already available in the south.

The support for the telephone company comes a week after Hay River MLA Jane Groenewegen's attack on the subsidy plan as nothing more than an attempt to avoid the realities of the marketplace.

NorthwesTel announced last month that it needs between $20 to $30 million to continue providing service to high-cost areas and

wire the North to the Internet in the new millennium.