Eastern Ontario Gig project will not be funded

Jeff Green | Aug 04, 2021

Path forward for EORN unclear

On one level, it seemed like a leap. Instead of putting together a project aimed at bringing Internet speeds that meet the CRTC standard of 50mg per second download speed and 10mg per second upload speed, the Eastern Ontario Regional Network (EORN) decided to aim higher, or rather faster.

The Gig project was designed to bring download speeds 20 times higher, 1 gigabit per second, to 95% of Eastern Ontario residents.

But, Eastern Ontario politicians, argued, given the exponential growth in demand for digital services, it would be better to put in the necessary infrastructure to meet the demand for the next 20 years. Otherwise, there is every chance that a new project, and further investments, will be required in a few years.

EORN knows all about this. The first project that EORN worked on was the Broadband Phase 1 project that took five years to implement. It resulted in the installation of a 5,500kilometre fibre-optic backbone from which local access networks provide service through wired or fixed wireless technology to rural customers. The goal of that project was to provide 10mg download and 1mg upload speeds to at least 95% of Eastern Ontario residents.

While that seemed like high-speed Internet at the time, it non longer is.

Five years later, the bar has been raised for service, and EORN expects it will only go higher in another 5 years

EORN estimates that it will cost $500 to $700 million to bring a 50mg/10mg solution to 95% of Eastern Ontario households, and $12. to $1.6 billion to bring 1 gigabit (1,000mg) But because of EORN’s rack record in the industry, and the public-private funding model it employs, the requirement from the provincial and federal governments would be $200 million each, with the private sector providing the rest of the investment.

With about 7.5% of Ontario’s population, $200 million to Eastern Ontario equates to a $3 billion provincewide investment.

On July 19th, the Province of Ontario announced their own program, which is called Ontario Connects, which will provide $4 billion in funding to provide all Ontario residents 50mg/10mg service.

EORN was shut out of out of the announcement.

Briefing notes that went out from EORN to member municipalities on July 14 that have been obtained by the News, say that EORN was aware they were about to be excluded from the broadband funding project in favour of an initiative that would be carried out by the provincial government on its own.

“Based on the best information EORN has to date, it seems all but certain that Ontario will be moving forward with their own broadband project which does not include an - EORN-led regional Gig project.

Once this is confirmed, the EOWC, EOMC and EORN will need to determine their response and next steps in terms of connectivity in our region,” the briefing note said.

The note recommends that EORN, and its parent organisations the Eastern Ontario Wardens Caucus as well as the Eastern Ontario Mayor’s Caucus, “pivot from focusing on an EORN-led regional Gig project to supporting both provincial and federal broadband projects for eastern Ontario, emphasizing that those projects should deliver a Gig of service to residents and businesses.”

EORN is in the midst of managing a $300 million cell gap coverage project that is rolling out over the next four years, and as the briefing note indicates, it will be acting as a lobbying and advocacy organisation for Eastern Ontario municipalities in regards to the Ontario Connects project and will not be overseeing procurement, or doing any project management,

After the July 19 provincial announcement, J.Murray Jones, the chair of EORN, released the following : “We congratulate the Minister and the provincial government on this historic $4 billion investment. EORN is prepared to lend our expertise to deliver our Gig Project in support of the Government’s commitment to connect 100% of eastern Ontarians. Our work has demonstrated that collaborative, publicly funded broadband projects can deliver results,” said J. Murray Jones, Chair of EORN.

According to a Postmedia report, on July 30, during an online meeting attended by the provincial and federal ministers and senior EORN officials, it was made clear that Ontario Connects will not include any funding for the Gig project in Eastern Ontario.

Postmedia reported that the province is planning to spend $1.2 billion (out of the $4billion allotment) on a plan to bring high speed (50/10) Internet to 280,000 rural Ontario households in all parts of the province.

According to EORN, about 30% of the households in Ontario that do not have the CRTC minimum standard of 50/10 are located in Eastern Ontario.

“Each of us expressed our strong disappointment with their decision not to support the Gig project and made clear our expectation that we would expect them to fully connect our residents and businesses to the same kind of speeds that the Gig Project would have delivered,” the EORN directors said Friday in a letter to Eastern Ontario’s mayors and wardens.

It is unclear what EORN will do now. The gig project has been heavily supported by municipalities across Eastern Ontario over the last 3 months in a concerted lobbying effort.

The provincial announcement regarding Ontario Connects on July 16 was also followed up by a meeting with Internet Service Providers on July 26, an indication the province may be taking a direct role in setting out the terms for the rollout of the project.

They are targeting the end of 2025 for connecting “every region in Ontario to reliable, high-speed Internet”.