The future of community-owned broadband Internet infrastructure will for now remain in limbo.
Sundre's outgoing council last week unanimously agreed to defer administration's request for decision on the next step to the new council that will be elected on Oct. 16.
The motion was carried after a discussion that followed a report from administration.
"Now that the preparatory business case and public consultation phases of the broadband project have been completed, council must decide whether to begin the difficult process of preparing the infrastructure necessary for deployment," said Jon Allan, economic development officer, during the Sept. 25 meeting.
Almost 600 poles have been identified as likely being required for the aerial deployment of fibre optic should the broadband project proceed, he said.
"Once each pole is surveyed for clearance, an as yet undetermined number of them will need to be replaced with larger ones at the town's expense."
Although Fortis has estimated about 20 per cent of the poles will need to be replaced, most will have a rebate benefit included based on the age of the pole, which in turn will lower the cost to the municipality, he said.
"Those that do eventually get replaced will be determined based on the combination of the pole survey and the outcome of the eventual detailed deployment plan."
Once that step is completed, the deployment's total cost will be known, and an agreement in principle with an Internet service provider could then be finalized, he said.
"At that time, the town will then need to determine if it is worth moving forward with replacing the identified poles within the deployment plan and continuing on with the project. If so, while the poles are in the process of being replaced, a tender based on the detailed deployment plan will be issued to complete the full rollout of the fibre optic network."
However, council had to first decide whether to move forward with undertaking a survey of utility poles owned by Fortis to determine if there is enough clearance to allow the attachment of fibre optic cabling, he said.
"The survey will then identify which poles must be replaced if we utilize them."
Sundre's engineering firm CIMA will be able to conduct the survey in conjunction with Fortis, and once complete, the process of replacing the poles is anticipated to add 17 per cent to the total deployment estimate of $2.75 million, bringing the total potential cost of rolling out the project to between $3.1 and $3.3 million. However, the originally estimated cost of $2.75 million already includes a 20 per cent cost overrun contingency, he said.
"Therefore, if the cost of deployment remains on budget, the cost would still be within the $2.75-million budget, including the pole replacement."
Additionally, the expected buy-in rate for both the business and residential sectors used to calculate the business case was only approximately 33 per cent, he said.
"But the results of the public survey show up to double that number of households are inclined to use that service."
Since only about $1,300 remains in a reserve fund allocated specifically for the broadband feasibility study, further pursuing the pole survey with Fortis and the town's engineering firm ó estimated to accumulatively cost about $72,000 ó would require drawing revenue from unallocated infrastructure reserves, he said.
Mayor Terry Leslie said the municipality has done some investigation and found that information ó including the cost ó is changing, and that following public consultation some people still have questions.
"Now that things have changed a little bit, there is still uncertainty," he said, asking his council colleagues for their thoughts.
To initiate a discussion, Coun. Myron Thompson ó who has spoken with residents both for and against the project ó motioned to defer the decision until after the election.
"I think it does have a future. I would never say ënever' for broadband. I would say probably sometime in the future," he said.
"I just think with the election rolling around the corner and a lot more discussions and deliberations that need to take place with Fortis" that the final decision should for the time being be deferred, he said.
Coun. Chris Vardas, who expressed support for the project, also had concerns about the growing cost and agreed with the motion tabled by Thompson.
"I'm definitely OK with deferring it for the new council that'll be sitting behind this table because I don't want to rush any decisions. The more information that comes forth, is a lot better than not having enough information," he said, adding the project should remain on the docket for future consideration.
Coun. Cheri Funke agreed with Thompson, and also expressed reservations about rushing through such an important decision right before the election.
"It is way too big of a financial decision for us to make the decision right now," she said.
Similar sentiments were echoed by the remaining members of council, who agreed additional information was required and that the decision should be deferred to avoid making any rushed judgments.
"I like the idea of owning some sort of a system," said Thompson.
"I like owning the gas system, it's been very good to us. I like owning the water system, it's been very good to us. And it might be very good to us to own this (broadband). But I think we need a little more time and a little more information."
