The federal government will provide $240 million to help expand broadband internet in rural Alberta, matching an equal amount of provincial funding to bring the total to $780 million.
Access to affordable high-speed internet is essential, said Federal Minister of Rural Economic Development Gudie Hutchings. She spoke during a news conference March 9 at the Leduc Heritage Grain Elevator in Leduc, Alta.
“The pandemic ripped off the Band-Aid of how we needed to get people connected … and we are committed to reaching our national target by connecting 98 percent of Canadians by 2026, and every single Canadian no matter where you live by 2030.”
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Broadband is critical for everything from rural education and economic development to agriculture, said Kara Westerlund, vice-president of the Rural Municipalities of Alberta.
“We often joke, but are serious, when … during the pandemic, you often found farm trucks and combines sitting in the Tim Hortons parking lot just to have access to internet (via wi-fi).”
Premier Jason Kenney has said the broadband initiative could boost the province’s economy by up to $1.7 billion three years after full coverage is completed, along with five percent growth in gross domestic product in the agriculture sector through better access to ag tech.
His government announced March 2 it will provide $240 million to expand rural broadband during the next four years. It said last year it would also provide an initial $150 million, which was matched by the federal government.
Both levels of government are reviewing and prioritizing hundreds of applications for rural internet projects under the federal Universal Broadband Fund. Besides addressing affordability and areas of need, such projects must contain technology that is scalable, said Hutchings.
The federal Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission set a goal in 2016 for all Canadians to have download speeds of 50 megabytes per second (Mbps) and upload speeds of 10 Mbps by 2030.
However, there will likely be an ongoing need for greater speeds after rural broadband projects are completed, said Hutchings, “so, we’re making sure that the equipment that we’re investing in is scalable for the future technology digital world that we’re all excited about Albertans enjoying…”
Although funding by both governments for rural broadband now totals $780 million, “it is a billion-dollar problem to solve,” said Service Alberta Minister Nate Glubish.
“I expect that this funding we have announced today will unlock significant additional investment from the private sector and from the service providers who will be building out the projects that will receive some of this funding.”
The Alberta Broadband Strategy commits officials to achieve 100 percent broadband connectivity for everyone in the province by the end of the fiscal year for 2026-27. It will “ensure that families no longer have to choose between living in rural Alberta and moving closer to urban areas just so they can get access to reliable high-speed internet to go to work or go to school,” said Glubish.
Westerlund said pandemic restrictions brought the problem home to her own family of three school-age children. There were arguments during the weekdays about who could use the internet to access online classrooms when their mother also had to work from home.
“It was often negotiating with teachers trying to explain, ‘yes, I know I live four kilometres out of town, but I have not the greatest internet, and I have to work and my children have to do school’ – and trying to arrange those times. It was very stressful in an already stressful time, so this announcement, it truly means a lot to rural Albertans, so thank you.”
Glubish didn’t know when the first round of broadband projects would be announced. However, he said he expected it will be soon and that “there will be some shovels in the ground this summer.”
Contact doug.ferguson@producer.com
