Council began last week an initial discussion on the future of municipally-owned broadband infrastructure following an update presented by administrative staff.
During the Sept. 5 workshop, elected officials learned the cost to deploy the project could potentially be anywhere from about $300,000 to $500,000 more than the originally anticipated estimate of about $2.75 million.
"The possibility of the future for this town in tourism is remarkably good," said Coun. Myron Thompson, citing examples of more and more visitors who have never been to or heard of Sundre stopping by the information centre.
There exists an obtainable potential for the future of tourism in the region, he said.
"Banff is overloaded. Canmore, all of that region. Kananaskis. I hear developers looking for the opportunity to develop in this town. So it sounds to me like we should be focusing on our top priority: tourism."
Any discussion on spending funds should revolve around infrastructure and "getting pipes in the ground, developing properties, and enticing individuals to come here," the councillor said, suggesting broadband should for now be put on the backburner.
"We all talk about future growth, now's the time to show some action," he said.
"I can't say broadband is not wise, but maybe it can wait."
Deputy Mayor Chris Vardas agreed with many of the points Thompson raised, but was not ready to pull the proverbial plug on pursuing modern Internet infrastructure.
"I'm all about development," he said, adding broadband is part of that overall big picture and that the infrastructure is something developers want.
Tourism is undeniably an important part of the equation as well, he said.
"We're in an area, though, that tourism is not year-round yet. We're hoping one day it will become all year round."
But considering the limited window of opportunity for tourism during the summer months, Vardas asked what the municipality should do during the winter.
"How are we going to entice younger families to our community to keep them here?"
The comparison with Olds regarding broadband keeps getting brought up, but it is not valid because that municipality actually acts as the Internet service provider, whereas Sundre would only own the infrastructure while essentially renting it to companies such as O-NET and Telus, which would in turn connect residents and businesses to the web, he said.
"We're not monopolized in our own community. So that would give choices to our residents."
As Calgary continues to grow, providing a modern, affordable lifestyle for younger families is important. Infrastructure, development, affordable housing, and Internet are all part of that consideration, he said.
"But if you want to entice businesses to come here, they need to be able to download a 500-page document in a matter of seconds, not three weeks," he said.
"This is what young families and businesses are looking for. And this is just another piece to the puzzle for tourism as well. Because when people are travelling, they have their devices and they like to be able to find hotspots to go off of so they're not going off their data all the time."
Additionally, the Town of Sundre is a business, he argued, and should be run as one, which involves wisely investing funds for the future.
Although he was not yet prepared to stand for or against broadband, Vardas asked administration why so many poles would have to be replaced.
Poles typically have sets of wires called phases that are mounted, said Jon Allan, economic development officer.
"There's a lot of poles in town that have three phases. What you have to do is actually have space between each phase of wire so that there's no electromagnetic interference, for one, and secondly, so that people don't injure themselves, like the linesmen when they're fixing things," said Allan.
Many of the poles are not tall enough to provide enough space for an additional phase ó in this case the fibre optic cable ó which would require installing taller poles, he said.
"It's not necessarily because the pole can't support the weight of the fibre cable, but it's not tall enough to meet the regulations," said Vic Pirie, director of finance and administration.
Vardas also inquired whether there remained any of the funds reserved for the broadband feasibility study.
"The majority of the money that was allocated out of the reserves has been used," replied Vardas.
Coun. Nolan Blatchford also wondered what would prevent a major telecom from coming into Sundre and installing its own network should the municipality decide to deploy.
"Absolutely nothing would stop them from being able to come in and put their own fibre optic network in as a competitor. But would they? No. The reason they wouldn't is we're not a big enough market," said Pirie.
However, those companies could potentially be interested in becoming service providers using the municipality's infrastructure, he said.
"They would be paying us to be able to access the infrastructure to be able to provide services to our residents. And that's where our residents benefit, because now they have competitionÖwe could have any number of providers coming in."
Another variable to keep in mind, Allan said, is the fact administration used very conservative estimates on penetration rates, and that the more people and businesses sign on, the quicker the return on the investment would materialize.
"With a profit-making publicly-owned service, you can also apply those profits towards infrastructure for tourism," he said.
The request for decision has been scheduled for council's Sept. 25 meeting.
