Service Minister hears concerns about registries, broadband internet

Image Credit: via Nate Glubish’s Twitter. 

Provincial Service Minister Nate Glubish toured through the Lakeland last week to hear concerns from municipal politicians and some residents on issues that should be addressed.

Glubish visited Cold Lake and Bonnyville on Friday evening before a stop in St. Paul Saturday morning.

The Service Minister looks after registries, land titles, and consumer protection.

Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul MLA Dave Hanson said a main concern was the changeover of driver testing from private vehicle registries to public registries.

“He mentioned at each meeting that the driver testing falls under transportation, so it doesn’t really have anything to do with the registries themselves or his department,” said Hanson.

“But we do know that Minister McIver is working on a solution there.

“The other one from the registry standpoint was just the little bit of frustration with the whole process. The other thing that came up was the notifications. People aren’t getting notified about when their driver’s license registrations expiring anymore, so it causes a lot of issues for the registries.”

Broadband internet access for rural Alberta was another topic discussed and how the province is moving towards expanding internet coverage.

In 2018, the SuperNet contract that connects rural Albertans to internet was signed with Bell at a value of $1 billion.

“We didn’t spend a few minutes like 10 minutes or so on broadband and what the plan is going to expand broadband so that we have the same access in rural Alberta as they do in the cities,” said Hanson.

The federal government set a goal in this year’s budget to the tune of $1.7 billion to bring all Canadians online by 2030.