DUNDAS, ON – The governments of Canada and Ontario announced today combined federal and provincial funding of more than $219 million for Rogers Communications to bring high-speed internet access to more than 66,000 households in over 300 Ontario communities, including over 600 Indigenous homes.
These projects are part of an existing $1.2-billion broadband partnership between Ontario and Canada, which was announced in July 2021. That joint funding initiative is designed to support “large-scale, fibre-based projects that will provide high-speed Internet access to more than 280,000 households across the province,” explains a federal government press release. The federal portion of the funding is coming from the $3.225-billion Universal Broadband Fund.
“Access to reliable high-speed Internet is critical for residents in Ontario today to stay connected with friends and family, and for businesses to operate and grow. We are proud to invest with the Government of Canada and the Government of Ontario to bring high-speed fibre Internet access to more than 66,000 households across southern Ontario, part of our coast-to-coast wireline network,” Ron McKenzie, Rogers’s chief technology and information officer, said in the release.
Today’s press release included a backgrounder listing the Ontario communities that will benefit from the $219 million in combined government funding that will support Rogers’s work on the projects.
The announcement took place in Dundas, Ont., with Donna Skelly, Member of Provincial Parliament for Flamborough-Glanbrook in attendance, along with Anita Anand, president of the Treasury Board, Filomena Tassi, minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario, and Kinga Surma, Ontario’s minister of infrastructure.
“Today’s announcement brings us one step closer to a fully connected Canada,” Tassi said in the press release. “Our commitment is unwavering as we work toward connecting 98% of Canadians by 2026 and 100% by 2030, leaving no one behind.”
The government of Ontario’s goal is to bring high-speed internet access to every community in the province by the end of 2025.
