Municipal leaders say the funding for Internet in rural Alberta promised in the province's 2022 budget is great news for local communities.
The provincial government announced funding from the 2022 Alberta budget at the end of February that will bring the total amount of money allocated to broadband Internet expansion in rural Alberta up to $390 million.
Alberta Municipalities president Cathy Heron said high-speed Internet service is the biggest need the organization is seeing in communities across the province.
“We're very pleased with the broadband announcements in the budget. And we really feel that the province has heard our call as well as [Rural Municipalities of Alberta] to invest in us,” Heron said.
“It is probably the biggest need that we're seeing, especially when you have people working and educating from home in the four corners of the province.”
The province released a broadband strategy which aims to get communities across the province connected to high Internet speeds.
Earlier this year the province announced $150 million in funding to help establish the rural connectivity infrastructure across the province and the federal government kicked in another $150 million, bringing the pot up to $300 million.
In the 2022 Alberta budget, the province allocated more money to the cause, upping its contribution to $390 million over four years.
Minister of Service Alberta Nate Glubish said the province will continue to negotiate with the federal government encourage Ottawa to kick over money to improve connectivity.
“I'm cautiously optimistic that we will have success there and we'll keep you informed once we've reached a resolution in those negotiations,” Glubish said.
The minister said it would cost around $1 billion to connect the entire province.
Some of the criteria Alberta will consider for selecting its first projects will be to find a balance of locations across the province, while also trying to service areas many people will benefit from.
“We want to make sure that we can get the best bang for our buck and to do some of those projects that will cover the largest number of households and communities for a given amount of dollars,” Glubish said.
Regional fairness will also be taken into consideration, the minister said.
“We want to make sure that every corner of the province is going to see some progress in the first batch projects that we announced as a part of our first batch of funding,” Glubish said.
First Nations communities will be represented in the first batch of funding because they can be some of the most remote and toughest to reach locations in the province and therefore suffer from slow Internet speeds, the minister said.
The broadband plan will not duplicate infrastructure, Glubish said, and municipalities that are already going forward with their own broadband plans won’t be considered in the rollout.
“What I can say is that this this funding announcement from the Alberta government is focused on new conductivity efforts.”
