Adam Bramburger
Beaver Staff
Lennox and Addington County will be doing its part to address the region’s cellular communications gap after dedicating money to a proposed Eastern Ontario Regional Network (EORN) project.
At Wednesday’s working session meeting, councillors unanimously agreed to designate up to $567,517 from its $1.3-million 2017 surplus toward a proposed $213-million public-private partnership to improve infrastructure and create more consistent connectivity.
The decision is in response to a presentation by EORN co-lead Jim Pine at council’s April 25 meeting requesting Lennox and Addington join other municipalities to fund the project, which is expected to be shovel-ready by summer 2019 if all the anticipated contributors come on board.
Pine said the Eastern Ontario Warden’s Caucus has identified the project as its top priority for 2018.
“We’re not going to talk about anything else this year, except this particular project. It’s going to be our No. 1 economic driver,” he told councillors April 25. “We want to focus our efforts on convincing the governments involved and the private sector that they need to do this project.”
Pine indicated EORN projects the project will create the equivalent of 3,000 jobs across the region over a 10-year period and bring in $420 million in private sector revenues. By fixing the mobile service gap, EORN also expects to improve public services — including emergency service — and enhance social connectivity for area residents.
The recommended project is the result of four independent studies: an engineering cell gap analysis, a costing study, a cellular market analysis, and an economic impact study.
Municipalities are expected to pay $10.1 million of the overall cost, with the counties’ share decided by their area, population, and assessment. The question of whether separated cities represented by the Eastern Ontario Mayor’s Caucus would participate also meant counties would be agreeing to a range of potential costs depending on which municipalities participate. For Lennox and Addington, that range is $414,899 to $567,517.
In her report to council, chief administrative officer Brenda Orchard advocated for the project’s approval.
“The cell gap project has been identified as critically important for economic development, population growth, and community safety. Connectivity is also a key service that is valued and expected from our existing local residents and businesses,” Orchard wrote. “EORN successfully delivered the Eastern Ontario broadband initiative and they have assisted the Province of Nova Scotia with their province-wide broadband network plan. There is no doubt that the organization can successfully deliver the cell gap project.”
Earlier in Wednesday’s meeting, the County’s director of physical and financial services Stephen Fox indicated he’d bring forward a report on how to spend the $1.3-million surplus next month, but he indicated there would be no problem including the project within those allocations.