Telus to connect over 2,000 households
OTTAWA – The Canadian federal government and the Province of British Columbia announced last Friday over $17.3 million in funding to bring high-speed Internet to over 2,000 households in rural BC.
The funding will cover four projects, and will provide service to households “in Cariboo regional district and in Indigenous communities of the Thompson-Nicola district in rural British Columbia,” according to a press release.
A spokesperson from Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) confirmed via email to Cartt.ca the federal government is contributing just over $8.7 million, which is a little over half of the total amount, for these projects from the Universal Broadband Fund’s (UBF) rapid response stream. The BC provincial government will provide the rest of the funding through Connecting British Columbia program.
Telus will be the Internet service provider for all four projects, which the ISED spokesperson confirmed will include:
- 947 households in 150 Mile House, Miocene, Likely, Bridge Lake, Dugan Lake and Hydraulic. Funding for this project includes nearly $1.7 million from the UBF.
- 659 households in Roe Lake, 93 Mile, Fox Mountain, Springhouse, Pine Valley, Big Creek, Riske Creek and Hanceville. Funding for this project includes nearly $3.4 million from the UBF.
- 372 households in McLeese Lake, Nimpo Lake and Soda Creek. This project includes over $2.6 million from the UBF.
- 116 households in Nooaitch, Okanagan and Glenemma. This project includes just over $900,000 from the UBF.
A request made by Cartt.ca for more information on the provincial government’s portions of these projects was not returned by deadline. The press release for this announcement, not unlike the recent press releases for high-speed Internet funding in rural areas of Ontario, included very little information despite involving significant amounts of public funds.
We will update the story as more information becomes available.
Updated August 13:
The BC government’s Ministry of Citizens’ Services provided more information about the province’s side of the funding for these four projects in an email to Cartt.ca. British Columbia’s total funding for the program amounts to $8.6 million from the Connecting British Columbia program, which it says will connect 2,845 households. The number of households on this list differs from the number provided by ISED because the ISED numbers include total households to be served only by the federal and provincial government funding. The following numbers include the total households to benefit from each project based on funding provided by both governments and Telus. The province outlines the projects and its contributions as follows:
- Telus Cariboo 1: Fox Mountain, Riske Creek, Springhouse, St. Joseph Mission, 93 Mile, Roe Lake, Hanceville and Big Creek. This project will receive up to $3.4 million from Connecting British Columbia and will connect 807 households.
- Telus Cariboo 2: Nimpo Lake, McLeese Lake, Soda Creek, Canoe Creek 2 (Canoe Creek Indian Band of the Stswecem’c Xgat’tem First Nation, Michel Gardens 36 (Tŝideldel First Nation, formerly known as Alexis Creek First Nation), Towdystan Lake 3 (Ulkatcho First Nation) and Fishtrap 19 (Ulkatcho First Nation). This project will receive up to $2.6 million from Connecting British Columbia and will connect 617 households.
- Telus Cariboo 3: 150 Mile House, Miocene, Likely, Bridge Lake, and Hydraulic. This project will receive up to $1.7 million from Connecting British Columbia and will connect 1,251 households.
- Telus Indigenous communities: Okanagan 1 (Okanagan Indian Band), Paul’s Basin 2 (Coldwater Indian Band), Nooaitch 10 (Nooaitch Indian Band) and Kamloops 1 (Tk’emlúps te Secwe̓ pemc). This project will receive up to $908,193 from Connecting British Columbia and will connect 170 households.
