Ottawa, Ontario
All Canadians need reliable and affordable high-speed Internet, no matter where they live. The governments of Canada and Ontario are taking action to bring high-speed Internet access to unserved and underserved communities.
Today, both federal and provincial governments announced over $61 million in combined funding for six projects by Bell Canada, the Northwestern Ontario Innovation Centre and Keewaytinook Okimakanak. This investment will bring high-speed Internet access to more than 16,000 homes in 47 rural Ontario communities and 3 First Nations communities in Northern Ontario.
The projects being announced today are part of an existing partnership between Ontario and Canada. On July 29, 2021, the governments announced a Canada-Ontario broadband partnership to support large-scale, fibre-based projects that will provide high-speed Internet access to more than 280,000 households and businesses across the province. This historic agreement was made possible by a joint federal-provincial investment totalling more than $1.2 billion.
On April 19, 2022, the governments announced an additional joint federal-provincial investment of more than $56 million for six new projects that will bring reliable high-speed Internet access to over 6,500 homes and businesses in Northern and Southwestern Ontario.
Today's announcement builds on the Government of Canada's progress toward ensuring that 98% of Canadians have access to high-speed Internet by 2026, and 100% by 2030. The announcement also brings the Government of Ontario closer to achieving its goal of bringing reliable high-speed Internet access to every community by the end of 2025.
