OLDS — The provincial government should forgive the expected $3 million or so in debt the Town of Olds will have after the sale of O-NET to Telus Communications because of its unique, ground-breaking history, says the municipality's chief administrative officer, Brent Williams.
He says that’s the argument town officials are making to Alberta Treasury Board and Finance.
Olds Fibre Ltd. (OFL), operating as O-NET, was sold to Telus effective Nov. 6. The price was not disclosed, but Williams says all will be disclosed next spring.
O-NET, created about 11 years ago, was Canada's first community-owned fibre-to-the-home provider offering high-speed internet and phone services.
It was created by volunteer community members with Olds Institute due to concerns among local residents and businesses about access to high-speed internet and other issues.
Its creation made headlines across the country.
“Our reasoning is that OFL was started prior to the current proliferation of broadband funding available now at the federal and provincial levels of government,” Williams wrote in an email.
“We have seen other municipalities in Alberta building fibre internet networks with the support of these dollars, including some near us, like Red Deer County and Ckearwater County.
“A total $153 million was announced just this year. And that’s great. Rural connectivity was O-NET’s mission.
“However, O-NET was built primarily with local property tax dollars. And while the town made that decision willingly, there was no avenue for support from the province back then.
“And council believes that Town of Olds citizens deserve a comparable level of support that citizens of other rural communities are now seeing from the Government of Alberta.
“Phrased a different way, O-NET has provided fibre internet access for nearly 10,000 people and businesses.
“Comparing to the cost of these newly announced projects to the number of people proposed to be connected, a $3 million loan forgiveness request is a reasonable investment by the province.”