A local MLA says staggered high speed internet project announcements are causing anxiety in the region.
Officials with the provincial government released their second list of communities recently.
Allan MacMaster, the Tory MLA for Inverness, tells The Hawk it should have come sooner.
“People in rural areas have essentially been treated like dirt when it comes to having good high speed internet.”
A number of local communities were included in the most recent list- Dunvegan, Scotsville, Twin Rock Valley, East Lake Ainsile, Strathlorne, Sight Point, MacCormics Corner, Hays River, West Lake Ainsile, Glendale, Askilton, Creignish, Craigmore, Hureaville and Kempt Road.
MacMaster says it is a good start, but it’s a mystery to him why it took so long for the latest communities, which are just up the road from previously announced projects.
“It’s great to see communities get listed- it is kind of strange, though, to see a community like Long Point listed back in September, then its neighbouring communities Craigmore and Creignish, those communities, just listed,” he says. “When they’re all running along Rte. 19, it just seems strange to me that they wouldn’t be included in the round of funding back in September.”
MacMaster says that lack of clarity is causing confusion and concern among residents.
He says people aren’t sure if they’re going to get high-speed internet until they see their community listed, while their neighbours already know.
