WHEREAS in July and August 2021, East Ferris and area municipalities were informed that Bell had received Universal Broadband funding that would provide 50/10 Mbps service to some 8,566 premises throughout the Nipissing area, Bell informally shared maps with area municipalities, and East Ferris would see 98% of homes receiving fiber optic service;
AND WHEREAS in April 2022, another announcement was made regarding broadband funding for many of the same areas, again under the Universal Broadband program, but interestingly, this time the areas covered by Bell were reduced to a single project in Nipissing to include the communities of Astorville, East Ferris, Bonfield, Calvin, Kiosk, Mattawa, and Rutherglen;
AND WHEREAS in August 2022, the province announced the details of its Accelerated High-Speed Internet Access Program (AHSIP), and many of the areas that had been announced as going to Bell, but did not appear in the April announcement, were now included in this announcement;
AND WHEREAS after winning a contract from the provincial government in 2022 to provide fiber optic internet to 98% of East Ferris homes, Bell Canada has yet to begin construction of the project in East Ferris which has a completion deadline of 2025;
AND WHEREAS since May 2023, the Municipality of East Ferris has repeatedly invited Bell to appear before Council to discuss the project scope, but Bell has continuously declined our invitations and has privately communicated to the Municipality about its intention to descope the project;
AND WHEREAS as of today, we are unaware of the plans by Bell to build a fiber internet network in East Ferris and we understand this same situation is also occurring in other communities in northern Ontario;
BE IT HEREBY RESOLVED THAT Council for the Corporation of the Municipality of East Ferris is asking the provincial and federal governments to terminate the said contract with Bell in favor of smaller, regional internet service providers who are ready to start and have a proven ability to deliver;
AND FURTHER THAT NetSpectrum be awarded the East Ferris component of the contract;
AND FURTHER THAT a copy of this resolution be send to MP, Anthony Rota, MPP, Vic Fedeli, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, Francois-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Infrastructure, Kinga Surma, and the other area municipalities that were included in the joint project.