Tags
Archipelago, Capital Investment, Carling, economic development, Infrastructure, McDougall, McKellar, Opinion, Seguin, Vision
I was invited to attend a West Parry Sound Smart Community presentation yesterday evening that provided an update on the project. In short the project is intended to provide most, if not all, West Parry Sound municipality residents with access to reliable high speed internet. With the exception of Parry Sound most of the communities have limited access to affordable higher speed internet services such as cable and rely on a patchwork of services that include cellular, satellite and DSL. In general these services are not particularly reliable, fast or reasonably priced. One Seguin resident noted that they pay $105 per month for 15 GB of data through one of the cellular providers. Service can be very spotty and unexpectedly change if one of the suppliers decides to reorient one of its towers. The arrival of summer with cottagers and campers in the provincial parks means what was reasonable service is likely to be swamped with the influx of these seasonal users.
There is a definite need for better internet service for communities outside of Parry Sound. The West Parry Sound Smart Community has the objective of developing and implementing a plan to provide this type of service. Vianet has agreed to work with the West Parry Sound Smart Community and provide high-speed fiber service. This service will depend on the installation of infrastructure that is estimated to cost on the order of $30-$40 million. The status of the plan was the topic of last night’s discussion. Rather than summarize the presentation I’ll add my thoughts on the realities of the plan. There is a short summary of the presentation at parrysound.com (no they are not a sister or brother blog to parrysounds.com ;-).
Key Thoughts/Points:
- The plan is to provide fiber from end to end with speeds on the order of 100 Mbps. This is very fast and more than almost any residential and most business infrastructure can fully exploit, like your car that can hit 200 kph but you are limited to 100 kph. Right now cable provides about 10-25 Mbps, and cellular 2-5 Mbps (LTE can be higher).
- The cost will be split 1/3 Vianet (~$10 Million) and 2/3 regional municipalities (~$25 million). The regional municipalities will look to provincial and federal governments to cover the cost.
- The case is being made that high-speed internet is a necessity to attract businesses. That may be the case for ‘onesy and twosy’ type high tech entrepreneurs. Real businesses will also require additional infrastructure, i.e., water and sewer service, that only Parry Sound currently provides. It seems that better internet service really will have its greatest impact on residential satisfaction. The municipalities will be able to offer low taxes and cheap high-speed internet service. Businesses will be interested but unlikely to bring in a 50 person business that depends on septic systems.
- Doing some back of the envelope calculations it seems the creation of a Smart Community high-speed internet service will cost about $1,500 to $3,000 per potential user. I have not included Parry Sound in the calculations because we already have reliable internet service in most of the town (cable, DSL and cellular). And we are likely to have higher speed fiber based internet service by the early 2015, without any additional federal or provincial funding.
I’m happy to see this initiative being undertaken by the West Parry Sound District municipalities, but I don’t want to see the Town of Parry Sound paying for it. We carry the burden of providing significant infrastructure services for Town residents, visitors and the outlying communities. We will be ‘wired’ at no cost to the Parry Sound residents regardless of whether the Smart Community initiative succeeds or fails. We are big enough and concentrated enough to be able to attract these services without federal or provincial support and subsidy.
It’s the outlying municipalities that depend on Parry Sound for many of their services who need to find the resources to pay for this type of infrastructure upgrade. Parry Sound has been investing heavily in infrastructure, we don’t need to be subsidizing our neighbouring municipalities’ wish for faster and more reliable internet services. By most any definition Parry Sound already is a “Smart Community”.
Show me the fiber! (Parry Sound in Black & White)
Two thoughts.
First, I could be, but am not yet, persuaded by your argument that businesses would see the need for sceptic systems as a disincentive. Midsize and large business in the city will never the less pay for city sewer services. Amortised over time, i’d question whether sceptic would really cost more (and they could likely write off all or most of it anyway). Very large manufacturing businesses, even in the city, often still have to have their own water or sewage treatment facilities, so businesses like that are used to those types of expenses. All this is still theory on my part, of course, but I think the proof is in all the businesses that are already operating in the municipalities: it clearly wasn’t a disincentive for them. So I think I would need to see more evidence that sceptic is a disincentive.
Second, I think I see in this post a theme that I think I’ve seen inseveral of your posts: the idea that parry sound has borne the brunt of infrastructure costs and pays the bulk of the taxes for them, and so it would not be right for municipalities to get a free ride on parry sounds cottails. To be honest, it almost sounds like a little bit of bitterness over how these cheap municipalities bennefit from parry sound infrastrucuture for which they haven’t paid while getting away with their own low tax rates. For example, your complaint about town managers pushing the town to take on the expense of a pool while they live in low tax municipalities.
To an extent, I do think your point is valid, but only an extent, and I think a better answer would be for parry sound to consider why exactly its losing people to the low tax municipalities. We lived in town for years, renting. When we looked to buy, we were initially determined to stay in town – partly because we did not want the expense of a second vehicle which an out of town move would necessitate. But then we saw the tax rates for even a modest home in town. Holy cow! I thought they seemed high, but did not realise how unusually high until I compared with cousins living in the GTA and discovered that there, in the shadow of toronto with all its services, they were paying significantly less for a bigger house than we would for a smaller house in parry sound. And what do you get for those high taxes? Water and sewer? No – you still pay an additional charge for that! Garbage pick up? Only in the most mediocre sense, with bag limitations, overpriced tags, intermittant recycling, and prima donna garbage truck drivers who decide for themselves when they’ll do the job they were paid to do! Really, at the end of the day, it seems the most you get for all those tax dollars you pay is the wonderful town council in all their competance. I’m not sure that’s getting your money’s worth!
When you pay that much and get that little, most people would call that a bad deal. Can you blame people then for not wanting a piece of that? Can you really fault people for moving to the municipalities (where I can drop off as many garbage bags as I want!)? Your apparent bitterness about this reminds me of the music industry in the early days of napster: for years they had gotten away with overcharging for subpar product, and then they got indignant when people, when given the option, declined to keep buying into that deal. Sure, the industry fought it for a while and was bitter, but eventually they accepted the inevitable and innovated a more constructive solution – and now we have cheaper cds and itunes. Parry sound could learn a lesson from that.
Thanks for your thoughtful comments. I don’t feel it’s bitterness. I have paid two and three times the Parry Sound taxes for a similarly priced property, and water/sewer was extra. I think it’s more ‘poking the bear’, and raising points and issues that may generate a discussion and perhaps improve things. To do this you need to put forward a position.
You are quite correct about the pricing of properties in Town. It’s a bit like when I lived in Princeton NJ in the 80’s where comparable house prices were much higher than even a couple of miles away. The difference was the ability to walk to school and services, the top-notch school system (oh I wish) and the comfortable vibe of the town. In the case of Parry Sound we do have some walk-to opportunities and rather good municipal services. But we also have trains running through town day and night, over-priced housing and a social services dependent economy. But there is the infrastructure, services, local shopping and schools, as well as a local hospital, physicians, dentists, high speed telecom, that make it an easier life if you work for a living.
In my opinion it really isn’t any cheaper to live in the surrounding municipalities than Parry Sound. But there is a different quality of life, one that I can appreciate. For me the tradeoffs are a bit too high; wells and septic (I’ve done that), managing a 50-100 meter driveway (done that as well), and the 20 to 30 minute drive for anything (yup, been there, done that). But there is the potential for lakefront, much more property, wildlife in the backyard, etc.
Parry Sound is bit-by-bit becoming Elliott Lake South. A reasonably comfortable retirement community. If you come from Southern Ontario and have made significant money on your house the property prices are high but still affordable. Schools no longer are an issue and you really don’t want the challenges of water, septic, snow plowing, or a longer drive for medical/dental services. The lack of traffic is a definite plus compared to the GTA and decent telecom, and local beer/liquor stores are to be expected.
The challenge for Parry Sound is more land for development. The Province is encouraging in-fill and higher density. This is leading to more single house conversions to multiple rental units. Interestingly Parry Sound, unlike other local municipalities, has actually grown over the last few years largely because of in-fill and the multi-story residences.
I’m still a bit bummed by the failed attempt a couple of years ago to annex some Seguin property to Parry Sound. The large tract developers were interested and willing but it was voted down by the smaller property owners. I’m not sure why only these larger properties couldn’t have been added, it wasn’t as though the smaller properties were located proximate to Parry Sound and ‘in the way’. It seemed at the time as though the process was ‘rigged’ to fail.
I’m happy to see the surrounding communities secure fast internet. I just don’t want to have Parry Sound ‘sharing’ in the cost the same way the surrounding municipalities don’t want to share in expenses related to the Bobby Orr Community Centre, the Stockey Centre, town boat launches and other services that are enjoyed by tourists and residents of West Parry Sound. Even funding for shared facilities like the Museum on Tower Hill has slipped over the years.
It’s a bit too easy to not take a position, not explain your thinking and avoid criticism for expressing an opinion. I’m perfectly happy to change my position and opinion when presented with appropriate facts and a cogent argument.