Some rural Cariboo Communities will benefit from a $3.6 million investment from the Connecting British Columbia program.
The money is going towards Telus to upgrade the internet access in many Northern Communities, including Buffalo Creek, Forest Grove, Eagle Creek, and Canim Lake.
“This is great news,” says Cariboo Regional District Chair Margo Wagner, “this is something that we have been trying to get Telus to do, I’ve been elected for 10 years, and I’ve been talking to Telus for ten years.”
Wagner says the upgrades include fibre optic internet for these areas.
“My understanding is that they are removing all of the old copper landlines and putting in the new technology landlines, improving the whole system,” Wagner says.
Wagner says there are many benefits to improving internet access in the South Cariboo.
“One of the holdbacks of people moving out into more of a rural area is the lack of good connectivity because a lot of them are moving from bigger centres, whether is the Lower Mainland or Alberta, where they have good internet access, and they still want to be connected for family reasons or a lot of them are still running a business, they’re just doing it remotely. Safety is another big issue, we have a lot of people that spend a lot of time out hiking, horseback riding, quadding, sledding, anywhere we can better cell service for the safety aspect is another huge boom.”
Wagner says she is happy to get this done and hopes more rural Cariboo areas will be included if the Connecting BC fund is available next year. She says Ruth Lake and Mahood Lake are hopefully additions for the next round of funding.