Just after 10 this morning, Anthony Rota, MP for Nipissing-Timiskaming hosted a Zoom meeting to announce upgrades to internet infrastructure in Powassan.
Powassan’s Mayor, Peter McIsaac was present, as was Al McDonald, North Bay’s mayor, as North Bay is also receiving upgrades in the Hornell Heights area.
Paul Lefebvre, MP for Sudbury, also attended on behalf of Maryam Monsef, the Minister for Rural Economic Development.
Improving internet speeds and reliability stimulates economic growth, Lefebvre explained, allowing small businesses “to take their business online.”
“This project is another important step in our government’s plan to connect all Canadians—yes, I said all Canadians—to high-speed internet by 2030,” Lefebvre said, adding the Federal Government has spent $1.4 billion on various infrastructure projects, with $925 million flowing into communities with less than 30,000 residents.
See: Faster internet coming to Nipissing First Nation
This infrastructure spending includes internet upgrades, as efficient service “is not just a convenience, it’s a necessity.”
“It’s a great day for the Municipality of Powassan,” Peter McIsaac, Powassan's Mayor said, adding that the upgrades will benefit “over a third of the homes in our community.
“I can not say enough about how important this announcement is.”
Maggie Papoulias, the director of government affairs at Bell Canada, mentioned that these investments “will be a key driver of Canada’s recovery from Covid-19 and to our future social and economic prosperity.”
Bell plans to add hundreds of thousands of homes to their fiber-optic network, and “doubling our 5G population coverage this year.”
Bell is investing $560,000 into the Hornell Heights and Powassan upgrades.
See: Federal funding to connect 600 rural homes in the area to high-speed internet
See: Broadband internet access services coming to Lake Temagami
In total, $1.6 million will go toward the project.
“Thank you for the work in getting rural areas in Nipissing-Temiskaming connected to reliable broadband,” Rota told the group.
“Not having access to reliable internet has made the impact of this pandemic so much more difficult,” Rota said, adding that the projects announced today “will be extremely important in taking that step to getting everyone connected.”
David Briggs is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of BayToday, a publication of Village Media. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.
