In the 2022 Alberta Budget, the government upped its commitment to bridge the digital divide in rural communities.
The budget increased investment into rural broadbands to $390 million over four years. It is to develop the infrastructure to reach universal connectivity for rural, remote, and indigenous communities across the province.
“This historic $390 -million broadband investment will help close the digital divide and enable all Albertans to participate in our economic recovery. From education to health care and from agriculture to small business, connectivity will help Albertans interact with the global marketplace, innovate for local solutions and help diversify our economy, said Nate Glubish, Minister of Service Alberta.
Minister Glubish discussed the investment at a roundtable with Alberta Weekly newspapers Association journalists. He explained they will be announcing the projects funded this season in the very near future. The government announced last year funding of $150 million, and this was matched by the federal government. Last week they upped the provincial portion and are hopeful the federal government will increase its commitment as well.
“We continue to negotiate with the federal government to encourage them to join us in increasing their financial commitment to Alberta-based projects and match the provincial funding we have announced. I am cautiously optimistic we will have success there,” he said.
He estimates to achieve universal connectivity through the Broadband Strategy it would cost in the area of $1 billion.
“If we were able to secure from the federal government for matching, that would bring the total of the funding framework up to $780 million. Of course, this funding is to partner with telecommunication companies and internet companies that would actually be building the infrastructure. They wouldn’t be getting any of this for free, they are going to need to have skin in the game as well. I strongly believe if we can get the full matching from the feds, the private sector contributions will push us north of $1 billion in total,” he said.
Glubish said the technology employed will be based on what is needed and what is suitable for each location. This could be building on the SuperNet backbone to wireless and even satellite technology.
We need to be thinking about what is best suited to every individual project in every individual corner of the province,” he said.
He adds that affordability for customers is an aspect built right into the government’s Broadband Strategy.
“Access is one thing, but affordability is also very important. Right now we are focused on building out the first implementation of the traunch projects. As we negotiate with the private partners of the projects, a big part of the agreement that will be signed between us and them will outline an expectation of an affordable project at the end of the day. If the government is going to put in public dollars to support the build-out of this infrastructure, we need to make sure Albertans are going to be able to afford to use it.”

Kneehill County council approved amended options under its Road Bans Exemptions following concerns raised by the agriculture community during the regular Tuesday, February 8 council meeting.
The concerns stemmed from road bans, which are commonplace across the province during the spring to protect critical roadway infrastructure, posing travel limitations on area farmers and ag producers.
“At the May 11, 2021 meeting, council made a resolution for administration to come back to present (road ban) options,” explained Director of Infrastructure Mike Ziehr prior to presenting council with three proposed options.
The first option was to continue utilizing existing road ban regulations with exemptions permitted through the county. This option was not feasible in May 2021 as changes were needed to the Traffic Control Bylaw, which went into effect in September 2021; these changes allow ratepayers to request an exemption from Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Mike Haugen or a designate, similar to existing road use agreements.
Information, such as the site location requesting the exemption, traffic estimates and vehicle types, along with the exemption timeframe and any commodities would be required, and Mr. Ziehr noted this is similar to previous requests received from oil and gas companies.
A second option, to implement a full road ban exemption for the agriculture industry, was also suggested. Mr. Ziehr explained surrounding municipalities were surveyed and, while other municipalities do have a full exemption on certain roadways--such as gravel and chip seal roads--this option was “a really risky way of approaching this.”
He added this option was not recommended by Protective Services or Infrastructure; despite offering reduced time for staff to process permits, there are concerns about traffic control and unrestricted loads posing a high risk of damage and potentially increasing budget demands to repair these damages.
The final option shared similar elements to the first in which agriculture producers would be required to apply for an exemption permit, allowing them to travel along banned surfaces only until they approached the first non-banned road surface. Although Alberta Transportation uses similar permitting, this option was not recommended as it again posed a higher risk of damages.
Following a lengthy discussion, council unanimously approved Option A and directed administration to develop a policy outlining the guidelines for road ban exemption requests.