Road paved for high-speed Internet
Posted By Dan Schell
Posted 6 months ago
Eastern Ontario has moved one step closer to becoming a wired area for future growth. On July 30, senior level government representatives from the area gathered at Huff’s Estate Winery in Bloomfield to celebrate the contribution of $110 million that will go towards the development of broadband Internet across Eastern Ontario.
This brings to fruition a dream that Ron Emond, Mayor of the Municipality of Hastings Highlands and Chair of the Eastern Ontario Warden’s Caucus, has been working to accomplish for three years. With the secured funding, he celebrated the hard work that was completed by many who shared the vision and will now see it come to a reality.
“This represents a huge step forward in helping us construct one of the most important pieces of infrastructure ever built in Eastern Ontario,” says Emond. “We are extremely grateful to both the Federal and Provincial government for their decision to support us and their faith in our ability to deliver this network.”
The network he refers to is the plan to create access to broadband internet for residents across Eastern Ontario, stretching from the Ottawa Valley west to Peterborough, south to Prince Edward County and North of Bancroft.
With a maximum contribution from both the Federal and Provincial governments of $55 million to each cover one-third of the project, the EOWC will join with a number of private sector partners to provide the remaining finances to complete the estimated $170 million venture.
For Daryl Kramp, Member of Parliament for the riding of Prince Edward-Hastings, the funding will allow the economy in Eastern Ontario flourish with the access to technology that is necessary to conduct business and create jobs to provide those wires for the area.
“Our Government is delivering on investments that help create jobs and build sustainable communities,” says Kramp. “The construction of a broadband network in Eastern Ontario will help to expand and improve local businesses and their services, and significantly boost our regional economy.”
Broadband internet access is absolutely pivotal to the strength of a strong local and Provincial economy according to Member of Provincial Parliament for Prince Edward-Hastings Leona Dombrowsky. She stresses that creating what she describes as a information highway for the area will allow for the economy to grow exponentially upon the completion of the project.
“We need to provide access to high speed internet in our rural communities so they can compete on a level playing field both nationally and internationally,” says Dombrowsky.
Though no date has been set for the beginning of construction of this internet highway, the goal set by the EOWC is that by 2013 that up to 95 per cent of the households in the area will have the option of high-speed internet access via the project.
