Dear Local Government Officials;
As a resident of Grey Highlands living on the NorthEast side of Lake Eugenia, it has become untenable to live here full time with a continued shortfall in good and affordable access to high speed internet services. My address here means that I am just over one hour away from the GTA, Canada's largest municipal area. This means thatthe area is home to people who both physically commute to the GTA, and telecommuters connected to the GTA who by design require sustained and high quality access to online resources.
The last few years have seen a major shift toward content held exclusively online by outlets that would have previously delivered the same content through both print media and television. The area is enjoying a major increase in new year round residents. Living here should not mean that we can not access the same information as our city based counterparts just a few kilometres away.
This move to online content and other resources for engaging citizens (learning portals, health supports, and more) is not happening alongside similarly robust development in physically situated and accessible by the public resources, and far and wide is replacing many that have previously been physically accessible. Also, recognizing the challenges of engaging many who feel marginalized and vulnerable related to various physical and mental health experiences, publically funded entities like NGOs and community health outlets are being funded specifically to deliver content and education online by both federal and provincial funding bodies including but not limited to Ontario's Ministry of Health and Longterm Care, and the Public Health Agency of Canada. Funding arrangements are continuously evaluated for their reach and impact and the last year and a half has seen the addition of evaluation criteria specifically pertaining to an organization's capacity to engage stakeholders via traditional online outlets, and social media.
It is not reasonable for our goverments to move toward models where content and education modules deemed essential for positive public health outcomes privilege online delivery platforms while not similarly ensuring that far and wide, Ontarians and more widely, Canadians, can access infrastructure enabling ready and easy use of these resources.
Perhaps most important to this argument is the continued inability of many youth in the region, to be able to participate in essential research activities related to homework and project based work. Teaching models in the region have not been tailored to acknowledge this deficit meaning that youth living outside of areas served by affordable and sustained internet access, are disturbingly marginalized in their capacity to learn and move toward solid robust educational outcomes.
I am calling on all levels of government now to immediately take up the work of investing in immediate, affordable, and equitable access to online resources for all residents in Grey-Bruce including residents like me in currently underserved locations in Grey-Highlands. My own recent engagement in efforts to prevent the closure of Beavercrest School in Markdale was only possible by my own investment of literally hundreds of dollars of cellular based internet access. This was necessary to be able to wholly and efficiently review, evaluate and comment on existing policy and policy related implementations in the region. This is entirely unnacceptable.
The only existing outlet for fixed local high-speed internet access is Xplornet via satellite as the delivery platform. My conversation today with the local provider confirmed that this platform means that high-speed access is limited both in terms of delivery speeds and very low caps on monthly data usage. They also confirmed that no upgrades have been made recently while naming an intention to make upgrades next year.
This simply is not enough!
Even with upgrades that result in access capacity similar to our neighbours with cable based internet, they would still remain the only provider in the area. Therefore we cannot look to a model based on the widely held value of being able to access services based on having multiple providers to choose between. This too can be readily addressed by demanding that other local service providers, like Bell, are asked to immediately upgrade wiring to local outlying areas that will allow residents like me to be able to access hardline high-speed internet, an affordable and highly dependable option. Bell has confirmed for me that existing dated wiring to this area will not furnish high-speed internet access.
I look forward to your thoughtful responses where I am counting on you to demonstrate your efforts to immediately address the concerns enclosed in this letter.
Thank you!
Shane Patey,
