The Warden of Huron County and Western Wardens Causcus Chair says Western Wardens have confirmed their support for a request to the Federal and Provincial governments for funding for the next phase of the SWIFT program to bring broadband service to all of Southwestern Ontario.
Jim Ginn says the original SWIFT project is well underway and there will be dollars coming to Huron County to subsidize businesses in putting fibre in the ground. But it's also recognized that that won't be enough to get everyone connected. So they are now lobbying both the Provincial and Federal government for funds.
"So we are now lobbying both Provincial and Federal governments for funds that would get us to 95 per cent, which is the CRTC recommendation for 2025. So we're looking for the dollars now because it takes a couple of years to get things in place."
But even if they do get it done, that still leaves five per cent of the people that aren't connected that are the last home on the end of their concession. Ginn says the CRTC recommendation is that those people be connected by 2030. So, Ginn says, they'll still need for funding to reach that goal.
"So we'll still need more government funding. But there are places that even if it's 100 per cent subsidized companies may still not be willing to go in there because the maintenance of the system won't be covered by the cost of those few people."
Ginn says it remains to be seen how that will be resolved.
