CityWest and Strathcona Regional District hail next step forward for Connected Coast Program

Another milestone for the Connected Coast project with
the selection of Baylink Networks as the prime contractor

As the New year gets underway, City West and Strathcona Regional District its partner in the Connected Coast venture have outlined another major step towards delivering on the much anticipated fibre optic link from the North Coast to Haida Gwaii, Vancouver Island and on the Lower Mainland.

Today the two partners announced that Baylink Networks has been selected as the prime contractor for designing and building the Connected Coast project. 

“With this announcement, we’re taking an exciting next step towards getting fibre in the water and bringing high speed connectivity to communities along coastal British Columbia. Baylink’s proposal was strong, and the company has the capacity and experience to build Canada’s largest undersea fibre optic network.” -- Stefan Woloszyn, CEO of CityWest.  

Baylink Networks was selected after an extensive procurement process which saw the request-for-proposals process come to an end last September. 

As Dave Leitch, the CAO for Strathcona Regional District explains it "Both, CityWest and the SRD evaluated all the proposals. Baylink Networks was selected as the successful bidder because they are an experienced company with extensive knowledge in this space."

CityWest and the Strathcona Regional District entered into a joint venture agreement in September 2020 to manage the Connected Coast project. Baylink Networks is a private company based in Port Coquitlam, B.C. that specializes in providing turnkey undersea networks.

 “We’re excited to be part of the Connected Coast project, connecting remote coastal communities of British Columbia with high-speed internet. We look forward to seeing what economies will develop in these communities with state-of-the-art infrastructure and limitless bandwidth. We would like to thank the extended team that worked diligently to get the project underway.” -- Darren Dofher, CEO of Baylink Networks

The Connected Coast project,  a concept which was first outlined back in 2017 will bring high-speed Internet accessibility to rural and remote communities along coastal B.C., Haida Gwaii, and Vancouver Island. It will connect communities to a subsea fibre-optic network that willrun from Prince Rupert to Haida Gwaii, down the Sunshine Coast, and around Vancouver Island. 

The scope of the project include the installation of cable that will provide 159 landings at rural and remote coastal communities, including 48 Indigenous communities representing 44 First Nations, with the opportunity to connect to high-speed internet. 

It is anticipated that this project will be completed at the end of 2023.

The project is part of what has been much mentioned initiative from a number of levels of government to improve connectivity to all areas of the province. 

The Connected Coast initiatve  has been made possible by the government of Canada’s Connect to Innovate program, Indigenous Services Canada, and the Province of B.C. through the Connecting British Columbia program administered by Northern Development Initiative Trust.

You can review some of the past notes on the project from our archive page here.

More notes on other CityWest related themes can be found here.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review.