If last week's second and final candidates' forum is any indication, Sundre's new council might well abandon pursuing community-owned, revenue-generating, broadband Internet infrastructure.
If last week's second and final candidates' forum is any indication, Sundre's new council might well abandon pursuing community-owned, revenue-generating, broadband Internet infrastructure.
The two mayoral candidates and eight council hopefuls essentially seemed to unanimously agree that broadband is an absolutely critical factor in making the municipality more appealing to new businesses and residents, which of course is extremely vital if we are to achieve long-term sustainability.
Yet they also expressed great reservations about risking taxpayer dollars to invest in the innovative project, and seemed to instead prefer the idea of throwing the town before the mercy of big telecom.
We, all across Canada, already pay among the highest rates on the planet for access to the Internet. Apparently, we have a high tolerance threshold for allowing ourselves to be gouged on a monthly basis to get access to what people even in developing countries around the world are paying much less for.
Being ripped off every month for overpriced and frankly lackluster access to the Internet is bad enough. But knowing all of the profits generated would then immediately be siphoned out of our community and into the pockets of a huge corporation merely adds insult to injury.
No one in his or her right mind is arguing broadband infrastructure should take precedence over roads, sidewalks and sewers. However, the latter do not directly generate revenue. Spend $1 million rebuilding a road today, and you can safely anticipate spending that again years down the line — actually more, inflation accounted for — without ever having earned a single penny on that expense in the meantime.
But spending about $3 million on broadband will deploy infrastructure that not only will not need to be replaced any time soon, but will also generate revenue every year that can be allocated to reserves specifically for projects such as roads and potholes. There's a lot of talk about diversifying the local economy, and this would be one important step towards achieving that goal.
Interestingly, the forum was broadcast live from the local legion on social media by the Sundre and District Chamber of Commerce — which as an aside should be commended for making the event as accessible to residents as possible. Hopefully, the roughly two-dozen people who tuned in were actually able to watch without their connection randomly grinding to a near stop as the stream attempted to re-load itself.
Although the new council will yet review numbers and statistics compiled during the feasibility study before making a final decision one way or another, opinions expressed during the forum did not paint a particularly optimistic outlook for the future of community-owned broadband infrastructure in Sundre.
Due to the Round Up's press deadline, results from Monday's election will appear in next week's edition. In the meantime, visit www.sundreroundup.ca for the unofficial count of votes.
— Ducatel is the Round Up's editor
