District of Lakeland drops Sasktel high speed offer
A plan to provide high speed internet in the Emma Lake Christopher Lake area is back to square one following a decision Friday by the District of Lakeland council to rescind the existing memorandum of understanding with SaskTel.
The 5-1 vote at a special meeting follows a virtual public meeting that was held Thursday. Roughly 140 ratepayers joined the ZOOM meeting, and there was also 27 speakers and 12 written submissions. All but two of the speakers expressed opposition to SaskTel’s proposal and the idea they would have to pay a levy for a service they felt was second rate. Reeve Walter Plessl told paNOW when all was said and done, council could not ignore the obvious push back from the community.
“It came to a point like why are we really moving this forward. There’s not enough appetite for it,” he said.
The proposed plan would have seen the District pay SaskTel $1 million for the DSL 10/1 broadband plan, with the cost ultimately shared by the respective 1,900 property owners at roughly $500 to $600 per household. Council was however offering payment options over five and even 10 years. When a survey was conducted last summer to get a feel for public interest, there was a 55 per cent response rate with 52 per cent of respondents (597 properties) saying they did not like SaskTel’s offer.