With work on the territory’s fibre optic redundancy line on track to begin later this year, the government says more future money for infrastructure could be a welcome addition to improve things like Internet service.

That was at least part of the message Ranj Pillai, the territory’s minister of Economic Development, relayed late last week.

“When it comes to pricing, it’s going to be based on many ways on ... how much money we put in infrastructure,” he said in an interview last Thursday afternoon from Yellowknife.

“It is a bit distanced from the conversations here, though,” he said, adding it also relies on rules set forth by the CRTC.

He was referring to a forum with his federal and territorial colleagues held in Yellowknife.

“When we think about our speeds and we think about our pricing – those are all things we need to make sure we’re competitive in,” he said.

That’s with the caveat, he acknowledged, that this is the North which tends to have more remote communities.

“We know we’re in the North, and we’re not going to have the same benchmarks as urban centres.”

While those standards may vary across the country, the commitment from the feds on such projects remains just as vital.

“I would say that you need to make sure the pipe you’re moving the information on is big enough to handle the speeds that you want.

“I think for us, that also means there needs to be more infrastructure investments from both partners we work with.”

According to a briefing last June, construction on that redundancy line is to take about three years to wrap up, coming with a $79-million price-tag.

Ottawa will cover most of that bill at $59 million, with Northwestel Inc. giving up $15 million and YG an additional $5 million.

The Yellowknife conference featured federal minister Dominic LeBlanc, who was handed the role of minister of Intergovernmental and Northern Affairs and Internal Trade last summer.

LeBlanc visited the Yukon last year, during which he acknowledged that infrastructure funding could be better geared toward northern areas.

That was also discussed at last week’s meeting, Pillai said.

“The one unique thing about this meeting is its core focus is on the North – which is always refreshing.”

Topics included economic resilience and what happens in situations of catastrophic events – like how to better respond to emergencies in the wake of things like the Fort McMurray, Alta. wildfire of 2016.

“Our team fed in mostly to the conversations about service delivery as well as the contributed growth in Indigenous communities around economic development.”

Pillai also spoke of challenges around supporting a digital economy, referencing the fibre optic redundancy line, and capacity building across northern areas.