Ontario fibre project gets federal-provincial boost

The federal and Ontario governments are investing up to $180 million into a new fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network designed to connect about 300 southwestern Ontario communities to high-speed Internet, officials announced Tuesday, bolstering a municipally driven project to bridge the region’s broadband gap. The SouthWest Integrated Fibre Technology (SWIFT) is backed by the Western Ontario Wardens’ Caucus — a group of 15 rural municipalities — and other partner communities and public sector organizations with the goal of building “an ultra high-speed fibre optic regional broadband network for everyone in Western Ontario,” according to the SWIFT website. During the morning’s announcement in London, Ont., Innovation, Science and Economic Development Minister Navdeep Bains said SWIFT and other previously announced government-supported projects — such as the FTTH networks in Gravenhurst and Nithburg, Ont. — “will also ensure that other Ontario communities have access to high-speed Internet,” which can be used for anything from faster login to Facebook Inc.’s social network, to helping home-based businesses find a market overseas. “So we can no longer consider fast Internet a luxury. It truly is a basic requirement — as basic a requirement as electricity or running water,” Bains said. This spring, the CRTC held a public hearing on whether broadband should be a basic service. After only one week of April’s three-week proceeding, chairman Jean-Pierre Blais said that broadband being vital was a “self-evident truth.” With a total price tag of $281 million, the $90 million from each of the senior levels of government brings SWIFT “closer to solidifying the partnerships we need to move this important project forward,” Gerry Marshall, Simcoe County warden and mayor of Penetanguishene, said at the announcement. In addition to laying new fibre, the project will “leverage government and other public sector organizations such as schools, post-secondary institutions, health care centres as the anchor tenants of our networks,” Marshall said, which will “provide the scale we need to expand the network closer to homes and businesses.” A portion of the revenue from the network, which will be open for access to service providers who will have to compete to deliver services to consumers, will be reinvested into expanding the network, Marshall added. Tuesday’s announced investment comes from Infrastructure Canada via the New Building Canada Fund’s small communities fund, a joint federal-provincial envelope for communities with populations of fewer than 100,000. In order for projects to be eligible for funding under the program’s connectivity and broadband category, they must provide download speeds of at least 1.5 Mbps and “provide for third party open access.” Unlike the Infrastructure Canada program, which doles out money to other levels of government, the previous Connecting Canadians funds funnelled through Industry Canada (now Innovation Canada) and went directly to the service providers. Infrastructure Canada money has supported about 30 broadband and connectivity projects (including SWIFT) to the tune of more than $268 million through a variety of funding programs since the end of 2007. “Under our contribution programs, projects are prioritized and submitted to the department for funding consideration by the provinces and territories in collaboration with the municipalities,” Infrastructure spokeswoman Jen Powroz said in an email. “However, it is important to note that Infrastructure Canada is not the sole federal department responsible for infrastructure investments. Innovation, Science, and Economic Development Canada is responsible for Digital Canada 150, which is a comprehensive plan to provide Canadians with the digital skills and tools required for the future.” This year, in addition to the Gravenhurst and Nithburg projects, federal infrastructure funding was also behind a recently completed broadband project in the Northwest Territories and a fibre upgrade in an Ontario First Nation community (Serpent River First Nation). In the spring, Innovation Minister Bains headed announcements of 24 additional applications approved under the previous Connecting Canadians program, but a $500-million rural broadband program that was announced as part of the 2016 federal budget has yet to be detailed. — With reporting by Charelle Evelyn at cevelyn@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

Ontario fibre project gets federal-provincial boost

News | July 26, 2016

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Ontario fibre project gets federal-provincial boost

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