The Alberta government announced a $150 million investment to expand and improve broadband internet services for Albertans living in rural, remote, and Indigenous communities throughout the province.
Premier Jason Kenney, along with Minister of Service Alberta Nate Glubish, Associate Minister of Rural Economic Development and Drumheller-Stettler MLA Nate Horner, Chief Billy Morin of the Enoch Cree Nation, and Wetaskiwin-Camrose MLA Jackie Lovely made the announcement on Thursday, July 22.
“In a lot of our small towns we’ve seen houses fly off the shelves, some of the lowest householdings in some of our little towns are right now post pandemic, and no one is asking any questions but ‘How is the internet,’” Associate Minister Horner tells the Mail.
He says this is something not isolated to his Drumheller-Stettler riding, and adds the investment will have the “potential to change things in a big way” across the province.
The need for better rural broadband connectivity has been an ongoing topic of discussion at both the provincial and federal levels of government, and Horner says the COVID-19 pandemic really “shone a light” on several of the concerns rural residents face when trying to connect online.
“We had kids going to at-home, online learning, and the calls I took from school divisions and families who didn’t have reliable enough (internet), or fast enough, to come close to what the schools were asking of them,” Horner said.
Horner notes the investment will help rural life in a number of ways, including in the agriculture industry where many farmers use wireless internet connections from everything to operating machinery to controlling moisture levels in grain bins.
Although the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has set targets for internet speeds across the country--at 50 megabits per second for downloads, and 10 megabits per second for upload speeds--Horner says this is simply not the case in many rural areas.
He says he is “fortunate” to be so close to an internet tower, but even in his close proximity--of about a mile--he says his internet is “just good enough” to allow him to connect virtually over Zoom meetings and his internet speeds are much lower than the CRTC targets.
Currently no announcement has been made as to which projects will receive part of the $150 million funding. Horner says there are some 800 projects before the Universal Broadband Fund in the province and the provincial government will need to “dig through those closely.” Each project will need to maximize private investment, reach as many households and small businesses as possible, and come under some form of regional fairness or equality, though Horner notes the first two points may at times contradict the third.
Horner also notes no federal deal has been finalized at this time, but it has been in conversation for “quite some time,” and is confident of federal participation.

In its more than 110 year history, the Mail has some loyal readers. That is why it came as no surprise when renewing subscriptions we came across one subscription for Louis Parai in Ottawa who has been loyally receiving the Mail for more than five decades.
We reached out to brothers Louis and John Parai and what we received in return was a story of an immigrant family that arrived with a work contract, and a generation later saw two young men achieve the highest level of education and become professionals living the Canadian dream.
The patriarch of the family, Louis senior, came from a small, poor community in Hungary in the late 1920s as part of a Canadian government-sponsored program to increase immigration. He had a work contract for a farm in the Lethbridge area.
After a couple of years working on the farm, he came to Drumheller where he found work in the mines. Around 1933, he was able to send for his wife to join them and start a family. Louis was born in 1937, and his brother John, two years later.
Louis and John completed their schooling in the valley and lived in North Drumheller on a double lot on Poplar Street.
“There were quite a few European families there and the men were all working in the mines as well. There was quite a cross-section,” said John. “In a sense, North Drumheller was sort of different because it was across the river and because of the people who lived there who all worked in the mines.”
John said the family did come to know a few other families from Hungary in the valley, and they would have annual picnics and events.
The boys weren’t overly involved in sports but were involved in Scouting. They would go on camping trips, go hiking, and to meetings.

John recalls attending a jamboree in Banff and looking forward to seeing the mountains.

“I used to tell people I never knew that anything existed outside of the valley until one of my scouting trips,” John said.
“One scouting trip was to a jamboree in Banff. It was a big trip for me. I recall because I knew we were going to go into the mountains. The day we got there it was all clouded in and rainy. I was disappointed I didn’t see the mountains, but when I got up the next morning it was clear sunshine. The mountains just struck me.”
Louis attended a jamboree in Ottawa, and for a small-town kid, it was also transformative.
“That had a big impact and was something that really struck me. I went back to see it when I reached adulthood because my memory was so vivid,” said Louis. “Both of us were quite active in scouting. We started as Cubs and worked right to becoming King Scouts.”
Milfred Macintyre was a scoutmaster who has a big impact on Louis’s life, and he kept in touch into adulthood.
Louis also received a camera at a young age and that became a lifelong passion.
In grade 9 John began working at the Shop-Rite Grocery for Bob Shapiro. He then worked at Jimmie’s Groceteria for quite a few years. Coming back in the summer from university to work, he also would help out at the drive-in theatre.
Louis’s connection with Blake Vickers through scouting had him working in the Vickers Hardware store as a young man.
Louis graduated high school in 1955, and attended the University of Alberta. For the first two summers, he came back home to work at Vickers Hardware and the Napier Theatre. He graduated from The University of Alberta, received his Masters Degree from the University of Toronto, and then went to Yale where he earned his Ph.D. in Philosophy and economics. He was a lecturer at the University of Ontario Department of Economics and was an economist for the Department of Defense for 21 years.
John graduated in 1957. He went to the University of Alberta and received his Bachelors of Arts. He then went to BC to the school of social work. He has a long career with the provincial government.
Their father continued to work in the mines and then for Greene Construction until he retired. He passed away in 1978. His wife Elizabeth passed away in 1995. John would often come home to visit his parents with his family and would take his kids to the sites, as well as checking out Rosebud Theatre and a couple of rounds of golf.
Louis said they would take their grandson to Drumheller, but he has not been back to Drumheller for about 25 years but likes to keep informed with the newspaper. He hopes to return and has a scouting trophy he would like to return to the current troop.