Winkler-based internet provider delivering high-speed service to 30 rural and First Nations Manitoba communities

Valley Fiber says it is undertaking one of its largest fibre optic projects and is building infrastructure that will deliver internet to 10,000 homes and businesses in rural and First Nations communities across Manitoba.

“These communities will now have access to the fastest internet network in Manitoba, and it will power their lives and their business,” Ryan Klassen, chief executive officer of the Winkler-based internet provider, said Tuesday from Fisher River Cree Nation.

The province has granted Valley Fiber use of two of its underused cables on the existing Manitoba Hydro fibre optic network for up to 20 years as part of the project, which will connect nearly 30 communities — including Buffalo Point, Hollow Water, Black River and Peguis First Nations, along with Fisher River and Fox Lake Cree Nations — to high-speed internet.

Construction should be finished by 2027.

“We are genuinely honoured to be welcomed into these lands and granted permission to build. That trust is not something that we take lightly. We’re committed to earning it every step of the way,” Klassen said.

Valley Fiber recently struck a deal for funding from the federal government, including $96.8 million from the universal broadband fund and a $26.9 million loan agreement.

The $3.25-billion universal broadband fund was created to get high-speed internet access to 98 per cent of Canadian households by the end of this year and achieve the national target of 100 per cent access by 2030.

As of May, 96 per cent of Canada’s households had access to high-speed internet, compared with 79 per cent in 2014.

In Manitoba, the number was 91 per cent.

Fisher River Cree Nation Chief David Crate said he wants to make sure his community is provided with the highest quality service.

“We knew that having fibre (optics) come to the community would be one of the the main focuses we’d want to have because what it means for our community is improving the lives of our members in all different aspects, from education to health to social,” he said. “We want to do that for our people, we need to, because we want to also connect globally to the world.”

Federal Northern and Arctic Affairs Minister Rebecca Chartrand has previously called the lack of broadband a “public safety failure.”

Manitoba Finance Minister Adrien Sala said the project will come at no cost to Hydro ratepayers.

nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca