Earlier decisions by Tbaytel and Bell Canada to expand high-speed internet services to rural areas near Thunder Bay are proving to be prescient in the wake of fallout from the Canada-U.S. trade war.
On Tuesday, Premier Doug Ford said that in response to U.S. tariffs on Ontario exports, he was nixing a $100-million plan between the province and U.S.-based Starlink to expand that company’s service in Northern Ontario and other rural and remote parts of the province.
“We won’t award contracts to people who enable and encourage economic attacks on our province and our country,” Ford told Toronto media outlets.
Starlink is a division of Texas-based SpaceX, which is owned by American tech-entrepreneur Elon Musk, who is currently a closer adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump.
The Starlink expansion plan was announced with great fanfare by the Ontario government in November.
Tuesday’s development didn’t bother Neebing’s Cathy Frederickson, who signed up with Bell’s new fibre network in December.
“I’m very happy with it,” Frederickson said.
Still, the satellite-based Starlink has been a reliable, if more expensive, alternative to rural homeowners who have so far been unable to hook up with either Bell or Tbaytel.
“I’ve heard there are several people who do use Starlink, as their internet is so bad they couldn’t have service otherwise,” said O’Connor Township clerk-treasurer Lorna Buob.
It wasn’t immediately clear on Tuesday what’s in store for existing Ontario Starlink customers following Ford’s announcement to cancel the Northern Ontario expansion.
SpaceX didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about its existing service in Northern Ontario.
Buob noted that Tbaytel’s high-speed fibre internet services were expected to reach her municipality this year.
Frederickson manages Neebing’s Mink Mountain Resort, which rents out cottages on behalf of private owners. She said some of the cottages use Starlink.
Meanwhile, for the past few years, Bell Canada crews have been working in southern parts of Neebing, laying the groundwork for high-speed internet at 400 “locations.” The new areas were to be available in that municipality sometime this year.
The Neebing upgrade was part of a $1.3-billion plan by Bell to make fibre-optic technology available to 80,000 homes across the province over a three-year project period.
In 2022, Tbaytel started construction on a $36-million fibre-optic expansion that aims to connect 2,565 households to high-speed internet in the six municipalities just outside Thunder Bay: Conmee, Gillies, Neebing, O’Connor, Oliver Paipoonge and Shuniah.
That project was expected to be complete by the end of this year.
