SWIFT project on track in Dufferin County

July 5, 2018 · 0 Comments

OUR READERS WRITE

In the May 3, 2018 Free Press and Economist, an article appeared which covered the visit to our county, by Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, Andrew Scheer. Mr. Scheer is quoted saying, “The Liberals made a big, flashy announcement regarding high speed internet for rural residents and then there has been no follow-up since.”

As the Liberal candidate in the 2015 federal election I worked very hard to get the federal Liberal Party and Government to commit to funding rural high speed internet (SWIFT) and was rewarded with success. I was so dismayed by the Leader of the Conservative Party’s statement that I attended the May 2018 meeting of Dufferin County Council to ask Warden Mills if the SWIFT project had been abandoned by its lead proponent, the Western Ontario Wardens Association.

I was pleased to be told by Warden Mills and Dufferin County CAO Sony Pritchard that “SWIFT is continuing to work through a procurement process that will see construction start later this year.”

And so to your readers, I say, the words spoken, regarding SWIFT, by the Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, Andrew Scheer, WERE NOT TRUE.

The Warden and CAO of Dufferin County have publically assured us that rural high speed internet, as proposed by the Western Ontario Warden’s in the SWIFT project, is coming to Dufferin County, paid for in part by the Government of Canada.

Ed Crewson

Shelburne resident