'You're kidding me': After 13 years of waiting, high-speed coming to Vivian Road in Stouffville

The province announced that $477,775 is being invested in Stouffville to expand broadband

Yorkregion.com
Aug. 17, 2021
Simon Martin

When Rob Lawrence moved to his house on Vivian Road in Stouffville 13 years ago, he was shocked at how bad the internet was. “I called Bell and asked them is there anything I can do to hook up to broadband here,” he said. “They said we can provide you with DSL dial-up and I went, ‘You’re kidding me’.”

That started a 13-year quest to find decent high speed internet. Lawrence tried satellite and other things. He went to see what his neighbours were doing, but concluded every solution was problematic in one way or another.

“How is that we’re sitting here like literally you go down to Bloomington you can see the CN Tower, but we cannot, no matter what we do, access broadband,” he said.

Lawrence’s long nightmare appears to be over. MPP for Markham-Stouffville Paul Calandra announced that $477,775 is being invested in Stouffville to expand high-speed broadband to more than 150 homes along Vivian Sideroad.

“This record investment in rural broadband will make an enormous difference for communities like ours with near-urban neighbourhoods and homes that continue to struggle for affordable and reliable high-speed internet service,” Calandra said.

The internet currently available in the area was just not good enough, Lawrence said. If there was a cloud above them, he said he could be cut right off for internet service.  Without government funding, there was no incentive for internet service providers to improve service in rural areas, Lawrence said. “This funding allows them to do that to fill these holes in because they could never make a business case to shareholders before,” he said.

Stouffville Mayor Iain Lovatt said for too long the rural part of the town has been rural enough not to have access to broadband. He said the announcement is part of a trend. “We’ve had four announcements this year of different pockets in Whitchurch-Stouffville that have received high-speed internet,” he said.

The news of the Vivian Road investment came on the heels of a $230-million investment in high-speed internet in Central Ontario by the provincial and federal governments Aug. 6. Up to $63 million could be contributed in York Region to service Pottageville, Queensville, Mount Albert, Nobleton, Preston Lake, Dickson Hill, Sutton, Lloydtown, Kleingburg, Brown Hill, Ballantrae, King City, Pefferlaw and Elmhurst Beach.

York Region chairperson Wayne Emmerson said the investment will allow the region to expand its network by more than 500 kilometres and target more than 5,000 underserved homes and commercial or industrial properties by the year 2025. “It also brings the potential for high-speed Internet to thousands of additional homes and businesses by enabling internet service providers to connect to YorkNet’s open-access network,” he said.

Another similar announcement happened in April, when the federal government pledged to deliver high speed internet to Lemonville in Stouffville and Locust Hill in Markham. At the time, longtime Lemonville resident Bob Curgenven was beside himself after experiencing very similar problems to Lawrence for the better part of a decade. “To hear this is actually happening is really, really neat,” he said. 

Lawrence is looking forward to having reliable internet. The retired teacher said he occasionally drives somewhere to hook up to the internet.

While timetables are not known yet for the project, Calandra said residents should expect it to move quickly and said he would be shocked if the project wasn’t completed by December of this year.

The announcement was part of 13 new projects costing $14.7 million  under the Improving Connectivity for Ontario (ICON) program, launched by province last year.