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Mayors pursue broadband funding (06/04)

By KELLY LOUISEIZE Northern Ontario mayors, reeves and representatives are going after lead ministries to ask for money they said was earmarked to them from the previous government by Connect Ontario Broadband Regional Access (COBRA) project, an init

By KELLY LOUISEIZE

Northern Ontario mayors, reeves and representatives are going after lead ministries to ask for money they said was earmarked to them from the previous government by Connect Ontario Broadband Regional Access (COBRA) project, an initiative tying Northern Ontario communities into the technology broadband highway.

“Where is that $55 million?” George Farkouh, mayor of Elliot Lake asked as he spoke at the 2004 Federation of Northern Ontario Municipality (FONOM) conference held in Mindemoya on Manitoulin Island last month.

“We should be putting that question to the minister of economic development.”

During the conference, FONOM members approved a motion to meet with chair of Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corp. Rick Bartolucci, Minister of Northern Development and Mines, along with Joseph Cordiano, Minister of Economic Development and Trade.

“We want to see that money invested because for every dollar invested by the government generates $4 in private sector investments,” Farkouh added.

Northern Ontario has continued to lag behind in high-speed infrastructure compared to the rest of the province, Farkouh said, and this diminishes

economic opportunities.

“We hear everyday about our youth leaving the North, businesses and industries shutting down. The broadband systems in Northern Ontario are small building blocks toward citizens reversing that process of economic decay.”

Major northern centres have been connected. However, smaller communities, mostly with populations under 3,000, have yet to be hooked up, according to Morry Brown, general manager of NetCentral.

Towns located minutes from Greater Sudbury like Noelville, St. Charles, French River and to the northeast Chapleau, southern areas such as Bala and pockets on Manitoulin Island have yet to receive broadband infrastructure, Brown added. Communities attempting to recruit a new business or expand existing ones are being “handicapped” with limited telecommunication infrastructure and this impairs the community’s chances of growing economically, Farkouh explained.