High-speed Internet will not be coming to hundreds of rural and northern Ontario communities anytime soon as the Ontario government decided recently to scrap a $55-million program designed to help regions not covered by ISPs.
Started in February 2003, Connect Ontario: Broadband Regional Access Program (COBRA), was originally envisioned as a three-year initiative. The government has also axed its Connect Ontario: Partnering for Smart Communities (COPSC) program, formerly known as Connect Ontario, which helps communities set up free portals so citizens can access both government services and private businesses.
COBRA and COPSC projects currently underway will continue to receive funding but no new ones are planned.
However, it is the loss of COBRA that will be mourned more deeply by rural Canadians.
These program cuts will likely halt further expansion of broadband networks across hard to reach areas of the province, said Jim Green, director, Northwestern Ontario Region, Regional Networks for Ontario (RNO).
The RNO is a non-profit coalition of communities that shares information and hosts discussion forums. Many northern communities don’t have entities that can pursue government funding for broadband, so the RNO does it on their behalf.
Bringing broadband to rural and hard-to-reach communities is good for business, Green said. Broadband access enables local businesses to reach a broader customer and expands job opportunities for rural residents because it allows them to work remotely for companies in other areas.
Green said most self-supporting communities — defined as those that can obtain their own funding — have already gained broadband access. Additionally, he said most Ontario communities, which only needed a small subsidy to implement high-speed networks, have also been wired for broadband access. However it is the communities with little or no business case — meaning no money — to deploy broadband networks that will suffer most.
“In a lot of the places the funding makes the difference between a business case or not,” Green said. “Then there are places where, even with funding, [broadband] is going to be tough to maintain but we haven’t even reached that group yet.”
The communities that most need government grants are being left to rely solely upon the federal government to bolster their coffers, he added.
Unfortunately the $105 million set aside in September 2002 for the Federal government’s Broadband for Rural and Northern Development pilot project is already spoken for. Beth Clarke, manager of community investments for the Broadband Program in Ottawa said, 58 projects are currently underway as part of the program, with each one including anywhere from one to 30 Canadian communities. As of now, there are no plans to extend the project, she said.
However, the Broadband for Rural and Northern Development agency has added a National Satellite Initiative (NSI) in conjunction with Canada’s Space Agency and Infrastructure Canada to bring satellite broadband to 400 communities areas that can’t receive it any other way, she said.
Additionally, she said the agency is working with Infrastructure Canada to bring broadband to all of New Brunswick and to link rural schools in Newfoundland and Labrador.
After these three projects are complete, plus provincial government initiatives, there will still be 1,700 communities left in Canada with no broadband access, Clarke said.
“In my area — Northwestern Ontario — there are very few communities with broadband and quite a few without,” Green said.
Neil Trotter, spokesperson for the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, confirmed that the government has cut funding for these programs and would not say if funding would ever be reinstated under the current government.
Trotter would only say that Ontario is currently working with both the federal government and municipalities to develop a new 10-year infrastructure plan. Trotter would not comment whether bringing broadband to hard-to-reach areas would be a part of this new plan.
