MOUNT UNIACKE, N.S. -- More than 100 small Nova Scotia communities are now in line to get high-speed Internet over the next few years.
"We are all past the time when high speed is a nice-to-have -- it is a must-have," Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil said on Tuesday.
Still, there are rural parts of Nova Scotia that can't latch on to a quick Internet connection.
"We are going as fast as we can and we realize it can't come fast enough," said Jennifer Angel, the president and CEO of Develop Nova Scotia.
The Nova Scotia government announced $193 million in funding for multiple projects to provide high-speed Internet to 32,000 Nova Scotian homes and businesses by the summer of 2022.
"We are on our way to delivering high-speed Internet to 97 per cent of homes and businesses in Nova Scotia," McNeil said. "Once complete, Nova Scotia will be among the first provinces in Canada to achieve this level of coverage."
Angel said it's a "technically complex" undertaking.
"It's a very large construction project involving thousands off kilometres of fibre through challenging terrain (with) the need for significant supporting infrastructure and engineering," she said.
The project started in May 2019 when there was about 70 per cent high speed coverage. The area that will benefit the most will be rural Cape Breton.
Portions of rural Cape Breton, along with the counties of Antigonish, Kings, Digby and Yarmouth, will continue to be left without a high-speed hookup.
"Harder-to-reach areas tend to be the areas with less density, but that's not always the reason," Angel said.
"As we turn our attention to areas that remain underserved, we're looking at how we can extend existing projects, how we can negotiate directly with ISPs (Internet service providers) to reach the harder to serve areas, and whether it would be productive to issue another call."
The provincial government signed an agreement with Bell Canada to provide the high-speed connection. Bell Canada is the owner of CTV Atlantic.
