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Subsea internet cable to link up Haida Gwaii

Cable to connect Haida Gwaii, Prince Rupert, Vancouver Island, Sunshine Coast with mainland network
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A map shows the planned route of the Connected Coast fibre-optic cable. CityWest will lead the project in the north, while the Strathcona Regional District will lead the southern portion. Light-up is likely three years away. (Submitted)

A new subsea internet cable is planned for coastal B.C. and Haida Gwaii is in the loop.

Measuring nearly 3,500 km and costing $45 million, the fibre-optic cable will wrap around Vancouver Island with a spur to the Sunshine Coast, a link between Port Hardy and Prince Rupert, and another link connecting Prince Rupert and Haida Gwaii. The network will bring high-speed internet to a total of 154 communities up and down the coast, including 44 First Nations.

Light-up is likely three years away, but a subsea cable will provide Haida Gwaii with far more capacity than the current link with the mainland — a growing number of microwave radio dishes on towers in Old Massett and on Mount Hays.

“This is a huge opportunity for all of us — it’s just amazing,” says Carol Kulesha, executive director of GwaiiTel, Haida Gwaii’s non-profit telecommunications society.

“We’re happy to support anybody who is going to cross the Hecate Strait for us.”

Funding for the $45-million cable will come from the federal Connect to Innovate program and Indigenous Services Canada, along with $11.4 million from the provincial government’s Connecting British Columbia program.

Peter Lantin, kil tlaats’gaa, welcomed the announcement as president of the Haida Nation and as a director with Coastal First Nations.

“Dial-up is a distant memory for us on Haida Gwaii, but slow unreliable internet is a fact of life,” Lantin said.

“Perhaps at this moment I’d like to say ‘good morning’ to everyone on Haida Gwaii with a five to 10-second delay.”

For Coastal First Nations, Lantin said faster internet will allow the Coastal Watchmen program to run in real time. Over 100 watchmen patrol the coast to monitor heavy vessel traffic as well as compile data on tourism, enforcement, wildlife, and cultural sites.

For Haida Gwaii, Lantin said the upgrade will improve existing education options with universities such as SFU and UBC, provide more telehealth services, make it easier for families to stay in touch, and boost economic opportunity.

“Working remotely will now become a reality. Coders, designers, artists, accountants, linguists — all business people can now reach a global audience,” he said.

“Young people can really think about staying in our communities with a full and stimulating livelihood.”

Jane Philpott, Canada’s minister of Indigenous Services, said such high-speed networks are key to prosperity in rural and remote places across the country. Along with the coastal B.C. project, Canada’s $500-million Connect to Innovate program funds other backbone network upgrades as well as “last-mile” connections to remote and rural households that don’t have high-speed internet.

“Affordable high-speed internet cannot be considered a luxury,” Philpott said. “It’s a basic tool for all Canadians, regardless of where they live.”

Local MLA Jennifer Rice noted that the link will also boost access to healthcare and emergency services, as well as providing new opportunities in tourism and other industries.

“For too long people living along B.C.’s coast and Haida Gwaii have been forced to live in technological isolation, which has affected their ability to communicate and do business in a digital world,” she said in a press release this morning.

GwaiiTel voiced strong support for the plan when it was first proposed by CityWest, as did the islands’ elected community leaders, Community Futures, and the Misty Isles Economic Development Society.

Queen Charlotte Mayor Greg Martin is among those who lobbied the province several times at the annual Union of B.C. Municipalities conference.

“This is fantastic,” Martin said. “We’ve had our fingers and toes crossed — we’ve really needed this.”

Martin said the case for the subsea link is twofold.

First, Prince Rupert is at the end of a single fibre-optic line from Prince George, meaning the port city and other communities would face a serious outage if that line were ever cut.

Second, having a fibre-optic line will boost capacity, not only in Haida Gwaii, where internet traffic is bottlenecked by the wireless link across the Hecate Strait, but also in Prince Rupert, which will now be fed from two mainlines.

“This technology didn’t even exist several decades ago, and now we’re absolutely hooked,” Martin said.

“Everything depends on it.”