Beaver Staff
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced an investment of $1.75 billion to help connect Canadians to high-speed Internet across the country, grow businesses, and create jobs earlier this week.
This investment is projected to connect 98 per cent of Canadians across the country to high-speed Internet by 2026, with the goal of connecting all Canadians by 2030.
“Now more than ever, Canadians need reliable access to high-speed Internet as we work, learn, and communicate with our family and friends from home,” said Trudeau in Monday’s news release. “With today’s announcement, we are continuing to bring faster Internet access to every part of our country, helping businesses grow, creating new jobs, and building a better Canada for everyone.”
Announced originally in Budget 2019 as $1 billion, Monday’s additional funding of $750 million for the Universal Broadband Fund will help advance projects with partners, like the Canada Infrastructure Bank, to connect Canadian households and businesses in underserved communities over the next six years. This includes a $150 million Rapid Response Stream with an accelerated application process to allow shovel-ready projects to get started right away. According to the government, following Monday’s announcement the government has made $6.2 billion available for universal broadband since 2015.
“Our connections have been our biggest strength in response to the pandemic and it’s our connections that will drive our economic recovery in the post-pandemic world,” said Maryam Monsef, Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Rural Economic Development. “Our government introduced the first national plan to connect all Canadians to high-speed Internet and we are delivering. Our investments will connect 1.7 million households to better Internet and the Universal Broadband Fund will build on progress to date, placing Canada at the head of the pack globally for countries that are rapidly investing in their high-speed networks.”
The prime minister also announced an agreement of $600 million with Canadian satellite company Telesat to improve connectivity and expand high-speed Internet coverage to the far north, rural, and remote regions across Canada, through low-earth-orbit satellite capacity.
Monday’s announcement is the largest one-time federal investment in broadband.