Municipal leaders welcome strategy, saying it is essential to the success of province’s rural economic development plan
Rural municipalities will likely continue to face challenges filling in gaps in broadband access in Alberta despite $36 million in provincial funding aimed at promoting high speed internet, said a rural leader.
The ongoing fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic is partly affecting access to electronic hardware ranging from radio equipment to microchips, said Paul McLauchlin, president of the Rural Municipalities of Alberta.
“I think that globally, you’ve got a broken supply chain, but I think at the same time, you’re seeing massive investments in broadband worldwide.”
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The provincial government announced Sept. 20 it was launching the $36-million Alberta Broadband Fund to help communities that have been unable to access the federal Universal Broadband Fund. Provincial officials said Dec. 20 they are accepting applications under Stream 1, which will be divided into two intakes.
The Service Availability Challenges intake will help communities that can demonstrate they are being affected by inaccurate federal mapping of internet speeds. Many communities in Alberta fear it is making them falsely ineligible for the UBF, which requires they must be below a federal target of 50 megabytes per second (Mbps) for downloads and 10 Mbps for uploads.
“To ensure no household is left behind, the ABF’s first application intake will support projects in communities where this discrepancy can be proven,” said Alberta Minister of Technology and Innovation Nate Glubish in a provincial statement.
Applications will be open until March 20, said a provincial website.
Meanwhile, the Community/Internet Service Provider (ISP) Applications intake will fund new applications in underserved communities that did not apply or didn’t qualify for the UBF, said the statement.
A third intake will be opened this year under Stream 2, which will “support the most remote and hardest to connect households that will not benefit from other broadband expansion projects,” said the website. “A limited number of remote households will be eligible to apply for a one-time grant to offset the cost of adopting high-speed internet.”
McLauchlin said provincial efforts to extend broadband to all rural Albertans are among the most significant things to happen to farmers since rural electrification in the 20th century.
“We definitely applaud the provincial government recognizing this and they’ve definitely been listening … and I think that if we’re going to move forward in developing Alberta’s rural economy, I think that (broadband) is one of the greatest investments.”
The adoption of technological advances such as smart farms and precision agriculture depends on access to high-speed internet, said McLauchlin. Broadband is also vital to the future of rural communities by promoting participation in what he described as the dawn of tremendous lifestyle changes, including the ability to work anywhere on the planet from home.
It is making it possible for urban people to relocate to rural areas while retaining high-paying jobs, as well as improving access to services such as health care that city residents take for granted, he said. “I think repopulation of rural Alberta is driven by broadband.”
He said it is also essential to the success of a five-year Economic Development in Rural Alberta plan that was unveiled Dec. 14 by Agriculture and Irrigation Minister Nate Horner. The provincial government plans to provide $125,000 to each one of Alberta’s nine regional economic development alliances to promote long-term prosperity in each region.
The Alberta Broadband Strategy has estimated the province will experience an increase of up to $1.7 billion in its annual gross domestic product three years after reaching universal connectivity, said the provincial statement.
“Alberta’s government remains committed to connecting households and communities with reliable high-speed internet by 2027. As more aspects of our everyday lives move into the digital space, staying connected to family, community, as well as educational and economic opportunities is more important than ever.”
However, McLauchlin has heard that some hardware providers for broadband projects aren’t accepting orders until 2024. Despite such problems, he expected a possible recession as well as shifting priorities in terms of demand may start to correct the supply chain over the next year.
Up to $70.6 million worth of projects were announced Sept. 23 to bring high-speed internet to more than 10,400 households in more than 50 rural and Indigenous communities in Alberta. It marked the first allocation of up to $780 million in combined provincial and federal funding set aside in 2022 for rural broadband.
The provincial government also expects to attract hundreds of millions of dollars in private sector dollars, bringing the total to more than $1 billion, said Glubish on Sept. 23.
