Community News

NEW FEDERAL FUNDS TO BUMP INTERNET SPEEDS

KAREN MARTIN-ROBBINS kmar tinrobbins@ metroland.com

Caledon Village is among several rural communities in Ontario to get an injection of federal funds for projects bringing improved high-speed internet service to the area.

Minister of Rural Economic Development Gudie Hutchings announced on May 3 more than $5.3 million in funding for Bell Canada, Golden Rural High Speed and HuronTel to bring high-speed internet to 1,662 households in rural Ontario.

Along with Caledon Village, communities that will benefit are Alberton, Bogies Beach, Burnt River, Glen Orchard, Jerseyville, Juddhaven, Kinmount, Minett, Mount Pleasant, Port Carling, Port Sandfield and Tower Manor.

"We need to close the connection gap and ensure

that every nook and cranny of Ontario has access to reliable high-speed internet — whether that's in Oil Springs or Carlsbad Springs or all the way on the shores of Lake Superior," said Hutchings.

Caledon Village is getting $209,800 of the funds bringing 39 homes access to faster high-speed internet.

The federal government has a national target of connecting 98 per cent of Canadians by 2026 and 100 per cent by 2030.

"Access to high-speed

broadband networks is helping drive Canada's recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and will be a key driver of future social and economic prosperity," said Bruce Furlong, senior vicepresident with Bell Canada.

The connectivity strategy aims to provide all Canadians with access to internet speeds of at least 50 megabits per second (MBps) download and 10 MBps upload.

"We are very excited at Golden Rural High Speed, which has been serving our community since 2013, to expand our service offering to include fibre to the home," said Ryan Moore, CEO with Golden Rural High Speed.

He said in their combined projects, they will be connecting almost 400 rural households, which would be cost prohibitive without the federal funds.

"Working from home and doing online schooling have become a necessity in the last two years, and we see it becoming even more important, making high speed and reliable internet increasingly an essential service," Moore said.

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2022-05-19T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-05-19T07:00:00.0000000Z

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