The only thing faster than fibre-connectivity in Tiny Township is municipal staff putting together a request on why the township hasn’t received full high-speed internet installation as of yet.
During the recent committee of the whole meeting, Coun. Dave Brunelle raised the topic of attending the 2025 Rural Ontario Municipal Association conference in January as a delegate, but wanted fellow council members to put together a reason to ask the province to help Tiny Township.
“I know we did a delegation at AMO; it was quite successful and productive,” said Brunelle, referencing a joint-meeting with Midland which resulted in a potential solution to septage issues the township faced.
When asked by Mayor Dave Evans what the timeline would be to craft a delegation proposal, members of council replied five business days which resulted in muted laughter from many in the room. Evans asked CAO Robert Lamb if it would be feasible have something within that period, which Lamb affirmed.
Conversation went to various topics that the township could address to provincial ministers in attendance, but Brunelle cautioned that their suggestions were on a higher provincial level such as municipal insurance, increased OPP billing costs, reduced infrastructure funding and others; Brunelle asked that something tailored more to Tiny specifically be considered.
After further consideration, Lamb proposed that Tiny could request an update on the Southwestern Integrated Fibre Technology (or SWIFT) project introduced in 2022, a non-profit, municipally-led broadband expansion project aimed at bringing high-speed internet to rural communities across Ontario.
Many locations along the Georgian Bay shoreline received fibre installation in recent years, but not many interior areas of Tiny Township.
“There are large portions of our community still that we have been waiting, for I think almost three years now,” said Lamb, “...for applications that were submitted to bring a form of high-speed (internet) to all of our concession roads.”
He added: “The provincial government has just made a big deal out of a $100-million deal with Elon Musk with his satellite stuff, yet there are very easy wins that wouldn’t cost nearly that much to be getting – even if it’s fibre on the poles rather than buried on the ground on a lot of our concession roads.
Lamb stated that a request could be submitted within the timeframe, which the committee of the whole accepted.
Following the meeting, MidlandToday asked Lamb about the importance of high-speed internet in rural areas. Lamb replied that the Simcoe County Access Network was an early form of high-speed that connected municipal offices with libraries, schools and hospitals, and it was time to fill remaining gaps.
“One of the largest adopters of technologies that you have out there is actually the agricultural community,” said Lamb. “When you see the large production farming that takes place now, the technology those farms are utilizing – and then not having the ability to potentially download that information and get it as quickly as they would – it has productivity means to it as well.”
The 2025 ROMA conference delegation correspondence can be viewed on the agenda page on the Township of Tiny website.
Archives of council meetings are available to view on the township’s YouTube channel.
