Hopes for high-speed Internet becoming available on the Island’s west coast have crashed.
Telus has backed out of a project that would have brought high-speed Internet capacity to Tofino and Ucluelet and the project is now stalled indefinitely.
“It’s a total rug pulled out from underneath the economy,” said Ucluelet Mayor Bill Irving. “The whole economy on the west coast is stalled because of this.”
The area reached its high-speed Internet capacity last September, leaving no room for new customers. Early this year, Telus and B.C. Hydro committed to work together to bring high-speed Internet through fibre-optic cables.
B.C. Hydro committed to replacing about 300 poles along Highway 4 and expected work to be complete by November, allowing Telus to begin coiling cables in December.
Telus informed the district of its decision to back out of the project just prior to the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention last week.
“Evidently they knew a month or more ago, but they hadn’t bothered to share that. Whether they were trying to find a solution or whether they just wanted to avoid the issue — I’m not sure,” said Irving.
Telus spokesman Shawn Hall told the Westerly News last week that he was unaware of any changes to the project but that he would look into the issue.
Irving said B.C. Hydro was all in on the project but Telus backed out due to budget concerns.
“Telus and Hydro told us they were prepared to go ahead with the project, they put it out to tender and the bids came in about 30 per cent higher than they had budgeted,” he said. “They had to go back to their respective boards to get approval for the increase. Hydro said ‘Yes, we’ll chip in the extra for the overrun’ and Telus said ‘No, we won’t’ — so that’s where it stalled.”
Irving said the overrun is small and he hopes to “get all the players in the same room,” to brainstorm ways to cover what Telus has refused to pay.
“I think it’s less than $1.5 million, quite frankly, which is a small amount for a huge company,” he said.
He said the issue was raised with every provincial minister whom district officials met with during the municipalities convention and was also brought to the attention of Premier Christy Clark. “She was quite concerned. One of the Liberals’ platform issues was connectivity in the province.”
A conference call is scheduled this week for Telus and Hydro to hash out possible next steps with the district, said Irving.
He encourages locals to express their disappointment to Telus and pressure the company to reverse its decision.
