OTTAWA and GATINEAU — The CRTC announced today seven projects in British Columbia and Alberta will receive up to $19.5 million in funding from its Broadband Fund.
In total, the projects will benefit approximately 1,255 households in 10 communities, including seven Indigenous communities, across the two provinces, according to the CRTC’s press release.
A backgrounder for the announcement says the CRTC’s Broadband Fund will allocate the money to four service providers in the following way:
- ATG Arrow Technology Group Limited Partnership (Arrow) will receive up to $4 million to build or improve fixed broadband Internet access services for approximately 195 households in Peerless Lake and Trout Lake, two communities of the Peerless Trout First Nation in Alberta.
- Arrow will also receive up to $997,000 to bring improved broadband Internet access to 80 households in Garden Creek (also known as Garden River), a community of the Little Red River Cree Nation in Alberta.
- Arrow is also receiving up to $4.3 million to build or upgrade local fixed access infrastructure for 225 households in John D’Or Prairie, also a community of the Little Red River Cree Nation.
- Arrow will receive up to $6.4 million to bring improved Internet access to 255 households in Fox Lake, another Little Red River Cree Nation community.
- East Shore Internet Society will receive up to $1.3 million to build or upgrade local fixed broadband access infrastructure for 280 households in the B.C. communities of Crawford Bay and Riondel.
- South Kountry Cable Ltd. will receive $764,000 to build or upgrade fixed broadband access services for 60 households in the community of Jaffray, B.C.
- Telus Communications will receive $1.6 million to build an LTE-A network to provide mobile wireless services to approximately 160 households in the B.C. communities of Alkali Lake 1 (also known as Esk’et), a community of the Esk’etemc First Nation, and Dog Creek 1 (also known as Dog Creek), a community of the Stswecem’c Xgat’tem First Nation.
All of these funding recipients submitted their applications for these projects in response to the CRTC’s second call for applications for funding from its $750 million Broadband Fund.
Prior to receiving the allocated funding, recipients must complete a statement of work setting out the details of each project, including schedules and costs, which must be approved by the CRTC. This statement of work package must be submitted within 120 days of the Commission’s funding approval decisions.
The CRTC says in its press release it anticipates construction for most of the projects announced today will start in the second half of 2022 at the earliest.
The CRTC also says it is continuing to evaluate applications submitted under its second call for applications.
“We are making good progress in assessing the applications and have now committed over $200 million through the Broadband Fund. Money is now flowing in areas of the country where Canadians do not currently have access to an Internet service that meets our universal service objective,” said CRTC chair and CEO Ian Scott, in the Commission’s press release.
Including today’s announcement, the Broadband Fund has committed up to $206 million to date “to improve broadband services for 170 communities, representing approximately 30,405 households,” the release says.
