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Midwestern

Huron County Waiting For Word On Broadband Funding

The warden of Huron County says they're still waiting to see if they're going to get federal funding to help bring broadband service to the county.

Jim Ginn explains the county's ultimate goal is to bring fibre optic cable to every house and business in the county.

"The cost of that is about $32-million dollars and we made an application to the federal government under the Connect to Innovate program and we're asking them for 50% of that, the local telecoms will kick in nine million, and the county was willing to put in seven million," says Ginn.

The funding was supposed to be announced at the beginning of this year but they haven't committed all of the money yet. Ginn says they're trying to be patient but the federal funding is critical to the project.

Ginn also points out this is not part of the SWIFT project to bring broadband to all of the counties in Southwestern Ontario.  Huron County is part of the SWIFT Program.

The warden compares it to a highway system.

"We need a 401 to get to Toronto and we need a major cable to get all of our information to Toronto where it can get out to the world, and then from the 401 you take provincial highways and then down to county roads and then down to municipal roads and fibre optics is much the same thing," he says.

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