441-00753 (Media and telecommunications)

The Government of Canada knows that access to high-speed internet is essential for all Canadians, no matter where they live. That is why this government has made more than $7.6 billion available across government connectivity programs to support the building of rural and remote Internet infrastructure. Today, 93.5% of Canadians have access to high-speed Internet or are targeted to receive access through program commitments, compared to 79% of Canadians in 2014.

Our government’s most recent connectivity program, the Universal Broadband Fund (UBF) is the largest federal investment in broadband in Canada’s history. The UBF will provide $3.225 billion to help ensure that 98% of Canadians will have access to high-speed Internet by 2026 – and we are on track to meet that goal. In fact, the impact of UBF investments has been an acceleration of the targets in Canada’s Connectivity Strategy, which initially set out to serve 95% of Canadians by 2026.  We intend to connect all Canadians by 2030.

With regards to the riding of Flamborough-Glanbrook specifically, nine projects have been announced in the riding under the UBF’s Rapid Response Stream (RRS), which funds shovel-ready projects that can connect households quickly. These projects will provide high-speed internet access to 1,259 households by fall 2022 and will receive $1.4 million in UBF funding.

Additionally, under the core UBF, in July 2021, a federal-provincial co-funding agreement with the Government of Ontario was announced to bring high-speed internet access to nearly 280,000 homes in hundreds of rural communities in Ontario. This agreement is made possible by an equal federal-provincial investment totaling more than $1.2 billion. Projects under this agreement have already begun to be announced and can be viewed on the UBF’s Selected Projects page.

Complementary to the Canada-Ontario broadband partnership, the Government of Ontario finalized the results of its reverse auction, which allowed Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to bid for provincial subsidies to connect defined geographic areas to high-speed internet. The Government of Ontario announced on August 4, 2022 the list of successful ISPs as well as the communities to be connected. The area awarded to Rogers includes several communities in the Flamborough-Glanbrook riding.

The Government of Canada looks forward to making more core UBF announcements under the Canada-Ontario broadband partnership in the coming months.