CTI project funding rolling out again

The last two months have seen a glut of project funding announced under the Connect to Innovate (CTI) program, with $29 million being funneled to 13 projects: three in New Brunswick; two each in Prince Edward Island, Ontario, and British Columbia; and one each in Alberta and Nova Scotia. According to the ministry of Rural Economic Development, which was created in January and took over responsibility for the CTI fund which predates it, the cluster of announcements in the past several weeks is little more than a coincidence. Projects are approved after an appropriate period of due diligence, according to a spokesperson. In May, The Wire Report reported that 60 per cent of the program’s applicants -- 532 out of 892 -- had not yet heard back. In June, documents obtained through Access to Information requests showed that the ministry had missed its own internal deadlines for projects under CTI. On July 25, the ministry announced that the government would be giving $40 million to Xplornet Communications Inc. to establish rural broadband access in New Brunswick (though under the Investing In Canada Plan, a separate plan than CTI). Two days before, on July 23, the ministry announced that BCE Inc. would be getting $129,000 for a project in Nova Scotia, the same day as it allocated $11.2 million for Toronto-based FlexNetworks to connect some 21 communities between Saskatoon and Regina in rural Saskatchewan. The FlexNetworks funding is the biggest in the last two months. On July 18, the ministry announced $2.2 million for Cogeco Inc. for projects in Eastern Ontario. Another big announcement came in northern British Columbia in early July, where $9.6 million for the Tahltan Nation Development Corporation (TNDC) will connect several communities near the BC-Yukon border. The investment, according to press release from TNDC CEO Peter Arendt would “ the lives of the Tahltan people and benefiting the many others who live and work in this remote region.” The Connect to Innovate program had come under criticism in the fall of 2018, when the Auditor General said that the program suffered from design flaws and a lack of transparency. “As a result of a number of weaknesses in the design of the program, it did not ensure maximum broadband expansion for the public money spent,” assistant auditor general Jerome Berthelette said at the time. In April, the House of Commons public accounts committee set a deadline of July 31 for ISED to report back about its rural connectivity strategy. The Ministry of Rural Economic Development declined to say how much of the fund would be spent before the election. “Projects are announced as due diligence is completed and projects receive approval,” a spokesperson wrote in an email.

CTI project funding rolling out again

Brief | July 26, 2019

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CTI project funding rolling out again

Brief | July 26, 2019

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