High speed internet for 280,000 more Ontarians: Ministers

Chrystia Freeland, deputy prime minister and minister of finance, along with ministers Maryam Monsef, Kinga Surma, and Dave Smith announced a historic agreement to bring high-speed internet to nearly 280,000 rural Ontario households in hundreds of communities across the province — including to homes in Kawartha Lakes area.

Under this agreement, the Government of Canada and the Government of Ontario have partnered to support large-scale, fibre-based projects that will provide high-speed internet access to all corners of the province by 2025, according to a media release. This historic agreement is being made possible by an equal federal-provincial investment totalling more than $1.2 billion.

In addition, the Canada Infrastructure Bank is assessing opportunities proposed through the Universal Broadband Fund to provide additional financing on a project-by-project basis toward significant expansion of broadband in partnership with private and institutional investors.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted how much we rely on our internet connections, making access to fast and reliable internet service even more critical. Canada-wide, more than 890,000 rural and remote households are on track to be connected to high-speed internet as a result of federal investments. At the end of March 2021, 175,000 rural and remote households had been connected to high-speed internet under projects supported by the Government of Canada. By the end of this year, over 435,000 households will be connected thanks to support from the federal government.

This investment will move Ontario almost 40 per cent of the way in its plan to achieve 100 per cent connectivity for all regions in the province by the end of 2025. It builds on Ontario’s recently announced investment of up to $14.7 million for 13 new projects under the Improving Connectivity for Ontario (ICON) program. This will provide up to 17,000 homes and businesses with access to reliable high-speed internet and builds on a range of provincial initiatives under way that will connect another 70,000 homes and businesses.

Also part of Ontario’s plan to achieve full high speed connectivity is a recently announced innovative procurement process that is being used to help connect the vast majority of the remaining underserved and unserved communities. Procurement under this delivery model, led by Infrastructure Ontario, will begin later this summer. Together, these initiatives are part of Ontario’s plan to help bring reliable high-speed internet to more communities across Ontario.

Today’s announcement builds on the progress the governments of Canada and Ontario have already made to improve critical infrastructure in Ontario. This includes leveraging over $30 billion in federal, provincial and partner funding for the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program (ICIP). This investment supports over 265 local transit projects; 140 projects in rural and northern areas; over 70 green infrastructure projects; and over 270 community, culture and recreation projects.

Also, as part of ICIP, Ontario launched the COVID-19 Resilience Infrastructure stream with combined federal and provincial funding of $1.05 billion. This includes up to $250 million in federal and provincial funding for municipalities to address critical local infrastructure needs to improve health and safety.