HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, Sept. 03, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — i-VALLEY, a not-for-profit creating Canada’s largest rural municipal network, is calling on all Federal Parties to take a new approach to broadband creation.
“Broadband is Canada’s Number One priority; almost all progress in the past sixty years has come because of networked innovation,” stated i-VALLEY President Terry Dalton. “Canada has made progress, but we are still woefully short of the resources we need to arm our people with access to modern health care, emergency services, and economic and social growth.”
Mr. Dalton called for Federal parties to endorse a new concept of a BROADBAND NATION, featuring:
- A Unified Development Strategy that is not based on competitions between communities for funding, but instead features a planned network covering the entire country;
- An economic cooperation structure that brings in community, private, provincial and federal financing, because the broadband gap in Canada will require some $50-billion, and there is only $4-billion on the table; and
- An accessible fee structure for broadband use, based on community governance of the network, as Canada’s private companies have created the world’s most expensive network access fees.
“If any of these elements is missing in our national plan, it will fail the people of Canada, and will be inadequate for future crises such as COVID and future prosperity through network-driven economic growth,” said Mr. Dalton. “Our well-being depends on a planned, financed and accessible broadband network.”
About i-VALLEY
i-VALLEY is a not-for-profit association dedicated to creating regions of Smart or Intelligent Communities based on world-best broadband speeds. It has been awarded the world’s first Smart Rural Region certification, and is currently working with the Municipality of Pictou County, Nova Scotia, on Canada’s largest rural network.
