The Town of Canmore could establish its own high speed broadband internet connection as a municipal service next year.
The municipality plans on spending $60,000 in 2017 to create a broadband master plan – as set out in the five-year capital budget currently being considered by town council at finance committee meetings this month.
Katherine Van Kiempema, manager of financial services, said broadband presents an opportunity for the municipality to create a service that generates revenue.
“The purpose of this project is to figure out what is the best way, if anything, to get it for the Town of Canmore,” Van Kiempema said.
Van Kiempema said broadband is proposed as an economic development project.
“It does tie into economic development because there are a number of industries that require faster internet other than what is currently available,” she said.
Meanwhile, the Calgary Regional Partnership is also working on a broadband strategy, which Mayor John Borrowman said Canmore could be a part of – even though council voted to quit the CRP earlier this year.
“Perhaps we can work with the CRP,” said the mayor.
Michael Fark, general manager of municipal infrastructure, said the work of the partnership is to combine efforts as municipalities to bring broadband in as a service.
“This would actually be a study about how to bring broadband to Canmore and would include a possibility to share with other municipalities, specifically in the Bow Valley,” Fark said. “This would be a much more Canmore-specific implementation for the scope of work.”
He said in terms of economic development, pursuing broadband may be the best bang for council’s buck.
It was an initiative that Canmore Business and Tourism was pursuing until that organization decided to cease operations in July.
The Town of Olds undertook a broadband initiative in 2013, implemented by its non-profit economic development organization.
Van Kiempema said the municipality was able to turn that service into a utility, which has generated a revenue stream.
“I do believe that is something we shouldn’t miss out on and there may be an opportunity to the Town of Canmore to have this as a method to generate a different source of revenue,” she said.
The capital project proposes to hire an external consultant to investigate the feasibility of providing a municipally-owned fiber optic network. It would examine available methods of building the network, the scope of available institutions, businesses and homes, funding and operational models, potential for providing the service and integration with existing providers.
Meanwhile, private service provider Axia held a town hall meeting in Canmore on Wednesday (Nov. 23) to detail how it would spend $100 million to connect 40 communities in Alberta to its fibre internet network.
