A significant announcement for the Township of Pelee Island.
Officials reported Monday that construction of high-speed broadband infrastructure has begun on Pelee Island, which when complete, will bring fibre-to-the-home internet service to nearly 500 homes, businesses, and government offices.
The project was made possible through nearly $20 million in funding from both the federal government's Universal Broadband Fund (UBF) and the provincial government's Improving Connectivity for Ontario (ICON) program.
Pelee is partnering with North Frontenac Telephone Company to see through the installation of two, redundant, submarine fibre optic cables installed from the mainland to Pelee.
On island, a series of fibre optic cables will be installed to bring services of up to 1,000 megabits per second (Mbps) to every home and business.
Officials say the network will be connected to the internet infrastructure on the mainland to provide fast, reliable service to the island.
Installation of the required network elements on the mainland has been underway since February, but today marks the start of installation on the island.
Mayor Cathy Miller says it's a very exciting time, and getting shovels in the ground represents hundreds and hundreds of hours by people behind the scenes to get to this point.
"Having a broadband fibre backbone that will be connected to two points on the mainland, and one under the lake to Pelee Island, gives us a level of reliability and connectivity," she continued. "It enables economic development, access to emergency services, helps our students, helps our seniors stay connected to family and friends, and it really actually helps our municipality."
The benefits are many, according to Miller, whether that's better cell reliability in the case of an emergency or just opening up different avenues of convenience for work and other duties.
"We definitely needed a solution that allows everyone to have access, feel connected, safe and secure. For our residents to be able to go online and update any of their driver's licence's or health cards, or be able to attend remote schools or work remotely. It opens up a whole new world."
A notice has been sent out to all residents where they can go online to fill out a consent form so that as work continues throughout the month they can give feedback to staff and NFTC partners on where to run the lines from the road to their houses.
She says that work will continue throughout the month, and they're asking residents to participate by filling out the forms.
"To really prepare to put fibre in the ground. And then the next phases are getting that fibre laid under the lake, which is really exciting. It's a very unique project, but it's not an uncommon concept for us as that's the same way our hydro line comes to Pelee Island, under the lake," Miller said.
Miller says this is the most significant infrastructure project that she will be a part of during her term, and gave credit to previous councils for their advocacy and both the provincial and federal governments for their partnership.
Construction of the network is scheduled to be completed in March 2025.