County councillors are expected to approve a grant application plan on Thursday that could allow all areas of the county to have high speed internet.
The county’s administration, finance, and personnel committee has recommended forming a partnership with Everus Communications of Waterloo, and local municipalities to complete the rural connections application process to the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs.
Last June, the government of Ontario announced a $30-million, four-year program designed to reduce broadband infrastructure gaps in underserved rural regions in southern Ontario.
Rural Connections is designed by the province to have a positive impact on families in rural Ontario by leveraging broadband infrastructure spending from private-sector businesses and public partners to enhance economic development and improve access to public services such as e-learning, e-health and e-government.
OMAFRA is the ministry leading the project and the approver of grants.
The AFP committee recommendation states staff should be allowed to submit the application to OMAFRA, staff should work with Everus Communications to implement the broadband project in Wellington, negotiate the final financial details with Everus, and the clerk and warden be authorized to sign the agreement. The application deadline is Feb. 12.
The county is working with all of its lower tier municipalities to ensure that all rural areas are covered in the application. If the application is accepted, the network is scheduled to be in place by late 2009 or early the next year.
Centre Wellington Township councillor Kirk McElwain sat on the committee that made the recommendation to use Everus. He has a background in the technology. He worked for IBM for 30 years, and then spent another five or six as a consultant.
He lives outside the urban area and said the goal is to provide “reliable wireless broadband” to the entire county.
He said of the latest moves, “Wellington County is probably a little more advanced than many counties in Southern Ontario. We have a number of high speed wireless providers.”
He said the first one was High Speed FX, which has recently changed its name to Everus.
McElwain knows the frustrations of slow internet service. He said people who work in areas with high speed find it nearly impossible to work with slow downloads over telephones, and that satellites are not reliable.
Further, he said, telephone high speed service either ties up the telephone when it is being used, or a second phone line is necessary.
“Anybody who uses high speed at work and tries to work with dial-up at home just can’t work,” he said. “When wireless became available, I jumped on it.”
He said the Everus proposal“won financially as well as technically,” in the committee’s opinion, so it was recommended.
He said the minimum speed for wireless downloads will be 1.5megabytes, although he admitted that cable and DSL service can work faster that that.
Still, it offers improvement in rural areas.
McElwain noted there are large numbers of rural businesses, including farmers, who depend on computers for their livelihoods, and the service will be much appreciated with it is available.
He added that for learning and e-health services, the high speed will also be critical for rural areas.
“There is so many applications you can’t do without high speed,” he said.
McElwain explained that the local municipalities and the county are working to provide $1-million in in-kind services, Everus will provide another million dollars, and, if the grant application is successful, OMAFRA will provide $1-million.
He added that all the local municipalities had been very cooperative in working towards obtaining the grant.
McElwain said he is pleased the costs for the enhanced high speed service will not be costing municipal taxpayers money because the in-kind contributions will cover that, and much of it is space for new towers already owned by municipalities.
“They will use municipal facilities for outreach,” he said, noting that a big part of the program is to give people internet training and show them how to avoid abuse of the internet.
“A fair amount is dedicated to outreach,” he said.
He said the committee he sat on was made up mainly of county and local municipal staff, and he was involved because of his knowledge of the business and his personal interest.
“I already use rural broadband myself,” he said. “So, I wanted to follow up.”
For more information on the program please see the OMAFRA web site: www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/rural/ruralconnections/broadband.htm.
