Internet For Everyone, Hopefully

The federal government is going to try again to jump start a plan to give all Canadians access to high-speed internet.

 

That includes people living in the far north and in rural areas of the country. The plan was put on hold earlier this year because of COVID and all the spending involved with that. But on Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau notes the importance of internet in Canada.  "Good, reliable internet isn't a luxury, it's a basic service.  Its a service that every single Canadian deserves. We've made important progress but there are more people still to reach. Today, we're taking another big step forward. Our government is launching the  1.75 billion dollar Universal Broadband Fund to connect all Canadians to high speed internet. This fund will be used to build infrastructure across the country almost entirely in rural and remote communities.  For places that are too far to reach, including remote areas in the north, we have reached a 600 million dollar agreement with Telsat for satelite capacity to improve broadband."

 

Groups like the Canadian Federation of Agriculture are happy with the announcement, saying Canadian farmers need reliable high-speed internet to operate their businesses, especially in a year like this.