Telus will need another two months to come up with a plan about what kinds of services it can offer Egmont and surrounding communities, said Ned Hodaly, Telus general manager for the Sea to Sky Region.
“Once the engineering reviews are done and we can secure funding, we can determine what the right solutions will be for that community. I think we’re looking at a minimum of two months before we have something more concrete,” Hodaly told Coast Reporter following a meeting held at the Egmont Community Hall on March 19.
Community members organized the meeting after Telus cancelled twice in the fall. More than 25 people attended the open-house-style event involving Hodaly and a handful of Telus staff.
“We learned quite a few things,” said Hodaly. “We have already started down a path of investing almost $250,000 to upgrade some of the equipment in the region and create a better quality and stability of the landline service to residents,” he said, adding, “What we overwhelmingly heard from people was that they are really interested in the wireless aspect of services.”
Emergency services, businesses and tourists are in need of cellular coverage and high-speed Internet. Telus has begun upgrading the wire line services in the area between Earls Cove and Egmont, and Hodaly expects the bulk of the work to be complete by this September. Last year, Telus announced it will invest $4.7 billion across B.C. between now and 2020 to upgrade communications infrastructure.
Hodaly said the fact that Egmont is a remote community presents special challenges, especially because of the topography. “We could spend hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions, and maybe cover 35 or 40 residents out of 280. So, having this conversation with the community was critical for us to really understand what areas they would most like to see coverage, understanding where the majority of the population, works, plays and lives.”
Tourists often arrive to areas, especially the popular Skookumchuck Provincial Park, assuming they will have cell phone service and web access only to find themselves without. It’s a concern that drove resident Elizabeth Schleimer to help organize the meeting. She said she had to knock on people’s doors to let them know because not everyone has email access.
Schleimer volunteers for the local fire department and sees the lack of coverage as a health risk. “It’s about safety for our citizens,” she said. “The fire department itself doesn’t have Internet access.” Her worry is that residents and tourists are more at risk because they can’t make emergency calls. “You come up here, you can’t call anybody. You can’t Google anything, you can’t Siri anything. I live in a world that’s not connected to the telephone.”
Frank Mauro, Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) director for Pender Harbour/Egmont, was positive about the meeting but acknowledged more needs to be done to serve the community. “Cell phone coverage is critical. Virtually that whole area is a dead zone.” He said one option discussed was the installation of microcells.
For Mauro, the problem is also an economic one. “[Egmont] is growing, more people are coming up there all the time and the lack of cell phone is a real, serious issue. People expect that. It’s an economic damper if it’s not available.”
In January, the federal and provincial governments announced that the underserved communities on the Coast, including those in Pender Harbour and Egmont, are included among 154 B.C. communities that will receive $45.4 million through the Connect to Innovate program. The program’s aim is to build “backbone networks” that will bring fibre optic cable to indirectly improve Internet connections in the region. Mauro said he will be looking into grant programs to fund Internet and cell infrastructure.
Earlier in the week, Pamela Goldsmith-Jones, MP West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country, visited the community to discuss connectivity. In an email following the event, she called Egmont a “key priority.”
