Bell Let's Talk About Internet Giga Bytes

Each month, our Newmarket Mayor publishes a column in the Newmarket Era, and without fail, each column boasts about his broad band internet plan. He talks about the need to connect. He talks about the Town's plans to create 32,000 new jobs by the year 2051, (despite the fact that his administration saw just a pitiful 100 new jobs since 2010, while the municipalities around us had much better job creation numbers).

This past week, Bell beat him to the punch. Bell has announced over a billion dollars in spending to make the City of Toronto a giga byte internet city. Toronto will have the fastest internet on the planet.

And with that billion dollar investment will come new jobs. Bell estimates that Toronto will see 2400 new jobs created because of improved internet access.

The Town of Newmarket has always been rather murky with their expected job creation numbers resulting from their broad band plan. Bell's 2400 new jobs estimate should give us some insight. Using the same ratio as Bell's estimate, Newmarket would see only 10.2 new jobs created by Van Bynen's broad band plan - a far cry from his own estimate.

It's time for Newmarket to be realistic about its broad band plans. To date, Van Bynen's administration refuses to discuss how much their plan will cost. We know that they have received and accepted a proposal from one company but the cost of this proposal is being kept secret. I expect that the money received from the Hollingsworth Arena sale will cover it.

And it is time for the Van Bynen administration to be honest about new job figures. Taxpayers will be spending millions to connect a few businesses. Most businesses in town won't have access. Curiously, the Town isn't connecting along the bus rapid transit corridor but is connecting the coffee shops, boutique restaurants and farmers market on Main Street for some inexplicable reason.

I am not opposed to having better internet connectivity in Newmarket. I am opposed to the way the Van Bynen administration intends to carry it out.  The secrecy needs to go. The service should follow where the employment corridors are - Yonge Street, Davis Drive, and Leslie St.  Main Street connectivity makes no sense whatsoever.