Internet service in St. Clair Township will be discussed at Monday's council meeting.
Included in the agenda are emails between Mayor Steve Arnold and a resident who lives on Stanley Line, questioning when rural areas can expect high-speed internet.
As detailed in the email, Arnold said there are no future Southwestern Integrated Fibre Technology (SWIFT) projects planned. SWIFT is a not-for-profit corporation in southwestern Ontario that supports the expansion of broadband internet to underserved areas.
In January 2020, SWIFT announced agreements with Execulink Telecom Inc. and Cogeco in order to deliver four large-scale fibre projects in Lambton Shores, the Town of Plympton-Wyoming, St. Clair Township, and Kettle and Stony Point First Nation. It was also announced in May 2021, that reliable internet service would soon be available to 570 residents and businesses in the Lambton County communities of Wanstead, Rokeby, Walnut, and Sutorville.
However, residents along a section of the St. Clair Parkway between Corunna and Wallaceburg were left wondering why they were being left out. An online petition was created in an effort to bring fiber-optic internet along a 1.2 kilometer stretch between Bunker Avenue and Rokeby Line.
"SWIFT mistakenly determined that the properties along the noted section of the St. Clair Parkway were already serviced and therefore ineligible for the government subsidy to perform enhancements to broadband infrastructure," read the petition on change.org.
The person who started the online petition, Milan Zdimal, said many residents were unaware they were being excluded from previous announcements.
"Once people were informed that they would be excluded from the project, on the basis of an assessment error, there was a unanimous and united response from the community supporting the remediation of the mistake," he said in an emailed statement.
The petition received support from 255 people and recently declared "victory" after residents along the parkway were promised high-speed internet service.
Zdimal said many residents had previously reached out to the Township, Cogeco, and SWIFT before the petition went live.
"I think the petition created visibility and awareness of the problem but I believe it was the collective voice of the community that made the real difference," said Zdimal. "This mistake would have had a profound impact on those living in the area for years to come. It's a huge relief knowing that we were able to work through the bureaucracy to reach a positive outcome."
Mayor Arnold said although he stands behind the petition, that alone was not the driving force behind the project moving forward. He said the issues were already discussed among council members and meetings had already been set up.
"It's a real blessing for this to move forward. It would have been better -- far better -- if SWIFT had recognized these 74 houses during the project," said Arnold. "Now, we're trying to do the best we can to help the folks out."
Arnold said council agreed to do bridge funding in order to ensure the project to service the 74 homes was completed in the near future.
"Council got costing from Cogeco to do that as a separate project. What we said we would do, is we would apply for grant funding either through the [federal or provincial governments] and that council would back the project until they either got funding or we did a service area rating bylaw for the residents in that part of our community," said Arnold. "What usually happens when they do a separate project ... the provider picks up around 3/4 of the cost and then they're looking for a 25 per cent contribution from the ratepayers. So that's essentially where the dollar value ended up."
A Cogeco representative confirmed to Blackburn News that residents along the stretch of St. Clair Parkway between Bunker Avenue and Rokeby Line have been informed that work will start in the Fall and the project is expected to be complete in early 2022.
Arnold said efforts to secure high-speed internet across St. Clair Township has been ongoing for over a decade. He also said the internet situation in the area has been amplified during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We've tried to get a tower system put in place over the years that comes right off of the fibre, goes to a tower, and then broadcasts out," he said. "We haven't had a lot of success with that yet."
With additional work scheduled along the St. Clair Parkway, Arnold said he knows other residents may not be happy about it but he's hoping options can be discussed Monday afternoon.
"Hopefully we can get a tower system put in place far more reasonable than it would have been before and get far better coverage so that's something that council has to talk about and decide," he said.
Monday's regular council meeting is scheduled to take place at 3 p.m. via virtual conference.