The driving force behind a plan to bring lots of high-speed internet to northern Ontario, Municipality of Huron Shores Mayor Georges Bilodeau, has received the Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities (FONOM) Executive Award.
It happened Tuesday at the FONOM Municipal Conference hosted by the City of Timmins and conducted virtually using ZOOM.
"Mayor Georges Bilodeau was presented with FONOM's Executive Award for his exemplary work on Broadband. The communities of Huron and Manitoulin are lucky to have such a great leader who has worked tirelessly for the municipalities on the North Shore," said FONOM President Danny Whalen.
The conference received Telesat and Elon Musk's Starlink presentations that showed delegates their rural regions will be connected to those systems soon.
But besides being more expensive than his planned municipal system, Bilodeau says Starlink is not yet ready to provide internet service needed by business. The satellite-based service is available now to anyone with space to set up a satellite dish the size of a large pizza, outside their home.
FONOM is an association of some 110 districts/municipalities/towns in northeastern Ontario working for the betterment of municipal government in the north.
Mayor Bilodeau has been working with a core group of four other people from the North Shore, Elliot Lake and Manitoulin on the Broadand Project which seeks hundreds of millions of dollars in Ontario and federal government funding. The idea is to set up a world-class municipally owned and administered Broadband system to make the north competitive with the world.
Other committee members are Douglas Elliott, Dan McCambridge, Greg Mathieu, and Jo Anne Matheson.
Mayor Bilodeau's FONOM Executive Award is also given to a municipal leader who has gone beyond the limits of his own municipality, getting involved with other municipalities for a common project.
"With my project, it's doubled the amount of work that I have in regards to a municipality. But I'm in my mid-70's and what would I do otherwise?" Bilodeau said. "I've done this all my life and what would I do otherwise? It keeps me young. It keeps me active, keeps my mind busy and I'm doing it for others."
"I cut the grass once in a while, look at the birds. But you have to have that extra," Bilodeau said.
In March Bilodeau told ElliotLakeToday an announcement about the Broadband project based on fibre optics distribution in the North was close. He says now it's closer and will likely follow the current provincial stay-at-home order lifting, now meaning sometime after June 2.
The Broadband plan is actively being studied by both senior levels of government.
"I guess you can say I can smell the coffee. I believe we're in the running. We're on a shortlist by both groups at the provincial and federal levels," continued Bilodeau. "They're going to make a joint announcement from both. I know they've been vetting our application."
The community-based broadband project covers a large geographical area including 31 municipalities and 12 First Nations.
In that area there are 31,000 homes, businesses and institutions from Garden River to Nairn Centre, south to cover Manitoulin Island and north to points north of Elliot Lake and Sault Ste, Marie.
The sought-after funding for the first phase is $150 million. The idea is to get 50 per cent from Ottawa and Queen's Park. Municipalities would be asked to pony up another 25 per cent.
For more information, go to www.hmcofi.ca