Huron County councillors will decide at Wednesday's meeting whether to join the SWIFT program, which will bring broadband internet to all of Southwestern Ontario.
SWIFT Executive Director Geoff Hogan says the federal government is a major funder for the project and they have to know how many counties are in, because that will determine their level of funding.
The cost to Huron County would be $679,000 over five years.
Two of the issues concerning county councillors are the fact that Huron is significantly ahead of most of the other counties as far as broadband connectivity is concerned, and it could be more than four years before the other counties are brought up to speed and some of Huron County's more remote homes get connected.
Huron County internet providers have done a lot of work to connect as many homes as possible and councillors want to make sure those local providers have a role in the rest of the work.
"Not every gap will be filled in four years. In the region it's a $4-billion problem and we have a $300-million project. So some of the gaps will be filled in, but more importantly we will have a system put in place to raise capital over time to finish the job," says Hogan. "They chose not to participate in our pre-qualification exercise. I'm hoping that our board makes a decision to allow another intake of pre-qualified providers and we hope that the small incumbent providers will participate at that point."