Albertan government officials visited the Innisfail Public Library to provide an update on their goal to improve rural broadband in Alberta. The provincial government will be increasing their investment into rural broad band internet for a total of $390 million over four years.

“We know that rural health care is impaired by not always have access to reliable high-speed internet. We know that rural schools can’t deliver the same high-quality programming if they don’t have access to that high-speed internet and many rural businesses are hampered as well,” said Alberta Premier Jason Kenney.

The Premier says the investment will get almost all Albertans access to rural high-speed internet.

“That will get us close to 100 per cent high speed internet broadband coverage for people all across the province including rural, remote, and Indigenous communities,” said Kenney.

The provincial government will also continue to look for federal funding to aid the project and reduce the cost for Albertans.

Currently, approximately 489,000 Albertans living in 201,000 households lack access to federal target speeds.

“We know today that 80 per cent of Indigenous communities and 67 per cent of rural do not have access to reliable high-speed internet. Our broad band investment and the strategy we are releasing today are going to make a significant impact in addressing that issue,” said Nate Glubbish Minister of Service for Alberta.

Glubbish noted that Albertans are going to need to be open-minded towards what connectivity looks like in their communities.

“What we need to be mindful of is that there is no one size fits all solution. We are going to be looking for every opportunity to bring fibre where it makes sense. We also know that there will need to be fixed wireless in other communities that are a little bit more remote. We also know that in some of the farthest reaches of the province we will need to be open to using low-earth orbit satellite technology which has had enormous advances in recent years,” Glubbish explained.

The investment is estimated to create around 1,500 jobs as the infrastructure is put in place. The Service Minister says he is hoping to see shovels in the ground for this project as early as this construction season. The Government has a goal to connect every home and business to high-speed internet by the end of the 2026-27 fiscal year.