Erin council doesn't want to get left behind in broadband expansion

ERIN – Erin council wants to make sure their residents’ needs for high-speed internet expansion are fully considered by SWIFT. 

Councillor John Brennan put forward a motion to contact Southwestern Integrated Fibre Technology (SWIFT) expressing the town’s dissatisfaction with a lack of action on broadband expansion, particularly those outside of urban areas. 

SWIFT is a non-profit municipally led broadband expansion project created to improve internet connectivity in underserved and rural areas in Southwestern Ontario. 

In January, SWIFT awarded contracts to expand high-speed internet in Wellington County which included Guelph/Eramosa, Centre Wellington, Mapleton and Wellington North.

The Town of Erin and Minto were the two member municipalities not included in this expansion. 

Brennan said he brought this up because of an increasing number of complaints from rural residents about a lack of good internet service. 

When SWIFT was first unfolding, Brennan said he heard anecdotally that Erin was considered to be adequately covered.

“My purpose in bringing this forward is to remind the SWIFT people as they’re working through the expansion of broadband services that the rural areas are not well covered,” Brennan said at council. 

“Let’s remind them that the need is still out there and our people need access to good internet services. Not only for business purposes but also increasingly your family life has come to depend a lot more on internet.”

Mayor Allan Alls said he would be happy to write a letter to SWIFT.

He recalled being dismayed when he learned at county council that Erin was excluded from expansion projects.

“I crossed the floor and talked to mayor Bridge from Minto, because he was out lead in that with SWIFT, and he said ‘Don’t feel bad, I spent all this time and my town is excluded too’,” Alls said to council. 

He said he suspects Minto and Erin were excluded because both towns have two reasonably sized urban areas that are serviced by high-speed broadband.

In an email, SWIFT spokesperson Melissa O’Brien explained that areas were chosen based on request for proposals in eligible funding areas across Wellington County. 

“All compliant proposals were then evaluated against a predetermined evaluation criteria with a focus on which proposals result in the best outcomes,” O’Brien said. “Generally, ‘best outcomes’ means more homes passed.”

During the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) conference, Alls said there was a meeting with a parliamentary assistant regarding broadband. He said he reminded this assistant that there’s 7,000 residents outside their urban areas that are underserviced.

At this point, the Town of Erin will have to look beyond SWIFT to improve internet as O’Brien said by email that at this point in time all SWIFT funded projects have been awarded in Wellington County. 

She said the broadband expansion plan is beginning to address the region’s connectivity challenges but not all underserved areas will be connected during this phase of the project.

“Therefore, the Western Ontario Wardens’ Caucus is currently seeking additional funding opportunities to address the remaining underserved areas across Southwestern Ontario,” O’Brien said. 

Erin council unanimously approved the motion to have the mayor and CAO contact SWIFT.