"Connected Coast" announcement

The Federal and Provincial Governments made a major announcement this morning about broadband Internet connectivity. As part of this announcement, they are proposing a new sub-sea cable to link Parksville to Lasqueti, and on to Texada.

While this would normally be a "good news" announcement, it's somewhat annoying that the community here doesn't seem to have been consulted (or even told) about this. There are a lot of open questions:

• Will this be open-access? Affordable for groups like LIAS and the school?
• Is this just for Telus, which likely would not bother to offer Internet access to the community?
• Where will this cable be going on to land?
• How is the land station going to be powered?
• Where will the land station be sited?
• When is this even proposed to be installed? (the cynic in us says like many Liberal announcements, most of the funding is scheduled to come after the next election)

Lots of questions. If anyone has any answers, please drop us an e-mail.

Peace,

David & Laura