The provincial government plans to invest nearly $4.5 million to improve rural access to high-speed Internet service in smaller communities across eastern Ontario.
The Rural Connections Broadband Program was initially created as a one-year project in 2007, but has been expanded to 2012 by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs after proving popular with municipalities.
The previous set of projects, announced in November 2008, set aside about $3.6 million for eastern Ontario communities stretching from Northumberland to South Glengarry.
Eight of the 14 new broadband projects announced Friday are in eastern Ontario, totaling $4,490,420:
- Hastings County (Tweed, Centre Hastings, Stirling-Rawdon and Tyendinaga townships): $452,000
- Lanark County (Mississippi Mills, Tay Valley, Beckwith, Lanark Highlands, Montague, Drummond/North Elmsley townships): $631,858
- Laurentian Valley Township/Petawawa: $700,908
- Lennox and Addington County (Greater Napanee, Addington Highlands, Loyalist, Stone Mills townships): $621,793
- North Frontenac Township: $334,887
- Prescott and Russell Counties (Casselman, Clarence-Rockland, Nation, and Hawkesbury, and Alfred and Plantagenet, Champlain, East Hawkesbury, Russell townships): $898,610
- Renfrew County (McNab/Braeside, Admaston/Bromley, Greater Madawaska, Horton townships): $329,106
- Stormont, Dundas, and Glengarry Counties: $521,458
The announcement brings the total number of rural broadband projects across Ontario to 47 over the past two years.
