SUDBURY – Carol Hughes, MP for Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing, is celebrating the recent funding announcement of the Huron Shore and Manitoulin Island Community Owned Fibre Infrastructure Corporation (H&M COFI) project.
“This is a massive project that will help bridge the digital divide for people across Northern Ontario,” said Hughes. “I had been a huge advocate for the H&M COFI project for years, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic when it was very clear that people in this region weren’t always equipped with the broadband services they needed to work or learn from home.”
H&M COFI is partnering with Ottawa-based ROCK Networks to build a broadband network that will bring reliable and affordable high-speed internet to 60 communities throughout the region between Nairn Centre and Echo Bay, including the City of Elliot Lake, St Joseph Island and Manitoulin Island. The project is being funded by a joint investment of over $97 million between the federal government, through the Government of Canada’s Universal Broadband Fund, and the provincial government, through the Improving Connectivity for Ontario (ICON) program. It’s expected to reach over 18,000 households, including more than 2,500 Indigenous households, once completed.
“This project will create good-quality jobs and will be a huge benefit for families and businesses throughout Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing,” said Hughes. “It’s going to help bridge that digital divide that is frequently felt in our small towns and communities in the North. I want to thank Michael Groh and Joe Hickey from Rock Networks who continued to push for this project, and for Georges Bilodeau, the Board Chairperson for H&M COFI, whose diligence ensured this project took off.”
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