Momentum may be building in public support for digital infrastructure to play a significant role in the government’s economic stimulus plans to be released in the January 27 budget.
As the Globe and Mail writes:
The most “shovel-ready” infrastructure projects, such as most of those in the list that the Federation of Canadian Municipalities released on Wednesday, tend to be the least forward-looking. The projects that predominate in the federal budget’s stimulus package, however, should represent real advances in the real economy. Canada needs to deploy the opportunity of the financial crisis to promote technological change, though the basics of public capital should not be neglected.
A companion news story has similar messages.
Infrastructure usually involves bridges and roads and now the Harper government is expected to expand that definition to include high-speed Internet access for everyone in the country in its coming budget.
Sounds similar to what we wrote earlier in the week and indeed, what we have been saying ever since our opening remarks at The Canadian Telecom Summit in June. We’ll continue to monitor this file.