Canada and Ontario Increasing Access to High-Speed Internet Service in Huron and Bruce Counties

Jul 14, 2023

HURON COUNTY – The governments of Canada and Ontario are investing more than $4.5 million to bring reliable high-speed internet to more than 1,770 families, farms, and businesses in Huron and Bruce Counties.

“Providing reliable internet access is especially important for rural communities to prosper in our increasingly digital world,” said Peter Fragiskatos, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Revenue and Member of Parliament for London North Centre, on behalf of the Honourable Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Infrastructure and Communities. “Today’s announcement marks another milestone for homes, businesses, and farms in Huron and Bruce Counties that can now connect to essential online services and enjoy the additional economic opportunities made available through high-speed internet.”

The federal and provincial governments have partnered with Southwestern Integrated Fibre Technology (SWIFT) Inc., to provide 720 residents in rural areas near Bluewater Beach and areas south of Benmiller, as well as residents in the communities of Porter’s Hill, Marnoch, and Hutton Heights in Huron County, with access to broadband infrastructure that will enable high-speed internet service. In neighbouring Bruce County, 1,054 residents in the areas of Vesta, Ellengowan, Pinkerton, Eden Grove, Cargill, Dunkeld, Chepstow, Pearl Lake, Maple Hill and Malcolm, also have access to high-speed internet service through SWIFT.

"By continuing to build new broadband infrastructure in Huron and Bruce counties, we’re helping strengthen our local rural communities. This investment is helping to support the growing utilization of real-time data on farm and in our rural businesses, as well as helping people stay in touch with loved ones, enabling them to access the supports they need while proving to be a foundational pillar for economic success across the riding," said Lisa Thompson, MPP for Huron-Bruce.

Huron County provided an additional investment of more than $1 million to support the project in communities near Bluewater Beach and more than $729,211 to support the project in the communities of Marnoch and Hutton Heights. They also contributed $731,886 to bring connectivity to areas just south of Benmiller.

“Connectivity is key to empowering businesses, strengthening local economies and unlocking new opportunities for innovation and growth in our small and rural communities across Southwestern Ontario,” said Gary McNamara, SWIFT Board Chair. “Together with the governments of Ontario and Canada, SWIFT continues to make strong progress in the expansion of high-speed broadband infrastructure across Southwestern Ontario. Today’s announcement builds on our program’s commitment to drive greater connectivity throughout the region as we mark the successful completion of five additional high-speed broadband projects in the counties of Huron and Bruce.”

This announcement marks the completion of five more projects under SWIFT and builds on the Ontario government’s plan to get the right infrastructure in the right places - ensuring people can live, work, and farm where they want.

The contracts to expand broadband services in Huron and Bruce counties were awarded by SWIFT, a not-for-profit corporation initiated by local municipalities to address connectivity in Southwestern Ontario.

More than $255 million has been invested by the governments of Canada and Ontario and the private sector to bring high-speed internet access to more than 63,000 homes and businesses in Southwestern Ontario through SWIFT.

Source : News Ontario

Video: The 15-Year Bet Behind Every New Variety!

Canada is trying to decide how much agricultural research capacity it can afford to lose. Brian Rossnagel believes the better question is whether the country can afford to rebuild it.

The longtime barley and oat breeder makes the case with a simple fact about his profession: the consequences of today’s decisions may not become visible for 10 or 15 years.

“Pick the right parents. That’s the biggest thing,” Rossnagel says. “If you pick the wrong parents, you’re not going to get anywhere—and you don’t know that until 10 years, 15 years later.”

That warning carries particular weight as Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada moves to reduce spending and streamline parts of its science operations. The department’s 2026–27 plan anticipates the loss of approximately 665 positions by 2028–29 and says some research will be reduced where capacity exists in academia or industry. AAFC says the changes will make its science operations more cost-effective over the long term.

For Canada’s seed industry, Rossnagel’s career illustrates what is at stake.

This fall, the retired University of Saskatchewan breeder will be inducted into the Canadian Agricultural Hall of Fame. During his 35-year career at the Crop Development Centre, he helped develop more than 100 barley and oat varieties, including CDC Austenson—one of Western Canada’s most widely grown feed barleys. His induction recognizes not only those varieties, but the collaboration and research system that made them possible.

Rossnagel is quick to emphasize that none of it was the work of one person.

“The first thing I thought about was all the other people who contributed to whatever success I and my program had over the years,” he says. “We know that it’s not an individual who does this. It’s a group—a team.”

That team extends well beyond the breeder whose name appears beside a variety. It includes technicians, pathologists, quality specialists, statisticians, regional testing sites, seed growers and industry partners. It also includes the breeders who came before and those who will carry the germplasm forward.

CDC Fraser barley, for example, moved through three breeding careers. Its parents came from Brian Harvey’s program. Rossnagel advanced the material after Harvey retired, and Aaron Beattie later guided it through registration and release.

That kind of handoff is normal in plant breeding. The person who makes the original cross may never see the resulting variety reach farmers.

It also explains why lost research capacity cannot simply be switched back on when budgets improve.

“If you shut it off, it’s very, very difficult—and particularly costly—to start it up again,” Rossnagel says. “If you have to start from scratch, it’s going to be at least 10 years before anybody notices whether you’re getting anything done or not.”

The concern is not simply how many experimental lines Canada can process. Modern equipment, statistical tools and genetic technologies allow today’s breeding programs to evaluate tens of thousands of lines—far more than Rossnagel could handle when he entered the field in the early 1970s.

But efficiency and automation do not generate every idea.

“If you pare back down, and instead of having six or seven individual scientists concentrating on wheat breeding, you go down and say three people could handle all this, well, that’s half the ideas gone,” he says. “Particularly if you happen to lose the three people who had the really neat and innovative ideas, boy, that’s a problem.”

It is a timely distinction for Canadian agriculture. Consolidating programs may preserve the volume of material moving through a system, at least initially. It may not preserve the diversity of thinking, regional knowledge or willingness to pursue unconventional crosses.

That regional knowledge matters because Canadian agriculture is not one uniform production environment. A variety suited to southern Alberta may face different disease, moisture and maturity pressures than one grown in Manitoba, Ontario or Atlantic Canada.

“Agriculture is applied biology,” Rossnagel says. “Biology, all around the Earth, moves from the poles to the equator. It does not move from Newfoundland to B.C. like politics do.”