Latest news with #AHSIP

Hamilton Spectator

Kearney mayor says her community among those ‘snookered' as high-speed internet project delayed, again

Few things are as irritating as trying to access the internet, only to be greeted with a spinning loading circle. For most of us, the annoyance is only occasional, but for residents of Kearney, the experience is all too common. It comes as no surprise, then, that the region was excited upon learning in 2023 the province was planning on bringing high-speed internet to the community. Nearly two years later, they're still waiting. 'I'm sure there have been delays for all kinds of good reasons,' said Kearney Mayor Cheryl Philip. 'But it's just ridiculous. We're in a technological world now … and Northern Ontario and rural Ontario are just snookered when it comes to reliable internet.' The project is part of the broader, nearly $4-billion Ontario Connects initiative, which aims to bring high-speed internet to every community in Ontario by the end of 2025. The initiative partnered with eight internet providers to upgrade infrastructure. For Kearney, that provider is Cogeco Connexion, which received about $74.3 million in provincial and federal funds to upgrade internet service for an estimated 13,856 homes and businesses in Ontario, including 950 premises in Kearney. Philip first learned of the project in August 2023 at an Association of Ontario Municipalities conference. She asked for the project deadline and was told March 2024 — a date which would later be pushed to March 2025, she said. In April, she sent a letter to Parry Sound—Muskoka MPP Graydon Smith and was told the revised date was June 29. A map of Ontario Connects projects also shows that date. A June 29 deadline wasn't explicitly corroborated by Laurise Roy-Tremblay, a communications adviser for Cogeco. Instead, she said the two separate projects in Kearney are still in the permitting phase and construction would likely begin sometime this summer. 'We have a project underway … to bring Fibre-to-the-Home services to approximately 950 underserviced premises in Kearney, as well as neighbouring lake communities like Clear Lake, Bay Lake and Clam Lake,' Roy-Tremblay wrote in an emailed statement. 'Through the … Accelerated High Speed Internet Program (AHSIP), we're further extending our network to more rural parts of Kearney, including the areas around Sand Lake and Grass Lake. Our goal for both of these initiatives is to begin getting residents online before the end of 2025.' Not everyone will be connected at the same time. 'As portions of the work are completed, they will be brought online while construction progresses in other areas with the goal of beginning customer onboarding by the end of 2025,' Roy-Tremblay wrote. But waiting has real impacts on the community, from business development to basic municipal functions. 'We're trying to stream council meetings, and our internet goes down all the time,' Philip said. 'We've had to pass a motion in our bylaws allowing us to continue even if the internet goes down.' 'Businesses would be far happier to come somewhere they know has the services needed to operate,' she added. While much of Kearney is on the June 29 timeline, outlying areas like Sand Lake have an expected December 2025 completion date and are part of a different contract with the province. 'I feel we deserve better,' Philip said. 'With the kind of technology we have, no one should be without high-speed internet. It should be affordable, and it shouldn't be this difficult to get.' Jesse Cole is a freelance reporter writing with Metroland. This Almaguin News article was written under the Local Journalism Initiative. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.