Long Blog #3: Ford Government Leaves Behind Those With Poor Wifi

It has been over a year since COVID-19 has caused Ontario residents to rely on remote working and learning, yet according to a Now Toronto article, many parents are forced to risk the safety of their family and send their children to school as they do not have access to wifi fast enough to support online education. In response to issues like this, the city of Toronto launched a COVID-19 Free Wifi Pilot Project, however, this was only made available in 25 locations throughout the city with limitations on the wifi signal. This solution is unfortunately ineffective as the Toronto website states that the wifi signal can only support basic web browsing, and not large downloads or videos such as zoom, which defeats the majority of its purpose. Although many people cannot afford fast working wifi in the city, many parts of rural Ontario also have little to no wifi access, making online work and school a nightmare for families. According to CBC News, many families in rural Ontario find a daily struggle to complete their children’s online school tasks and often have to resort to submitting work in school or Tim Horton’s parking lots. In the small town of Schomberg Ontario, wifi limitations are not a new issue. Toronto.com reports that Schomberg residents have been complaining for years about poor wifi quality. Many other communities in rural and northern Canada including Indigenous peoples are also experiencing struggles with completing online work and school with a weak or nonexistent wifi signal, and the Ontario government continues to fail to create a solution for rural students and their families as well as other rural remote workers. In Schomberg, only 30 minutes away from Toronto, many residents rely on the public library in order to connect to wifi and use the public computers to complete documents and school assignments, however because of COVID these services are no longer available when wifi connection is most important. Because of this, the library has been loaning out wifi hotspots with proper internet connection usable for zoom meetings and larger downloads. Unfortunately, the library is only able to afford 3 hotspots, and because of high demand can only lend them out for one week until it has to be returned and the resident may put themself on the bottom of a long waiting list to get it again. The library is doing its best given the circumstances, but the residents of Schomberg should not have to rely on Tim Horton’s parking lots and 3 wifi hotspots in order to work and learn productively. It seems as if the Ontario government forgets about those who are not wealthy and live in urban areas when it comes to issues like this. Emphasis is placed on improving urban spaces like Toronto while towns like Schomberg are left behind. It is not uncommon that Canada’s government fails to look after smaller rural communities. Compared to the issues many rural Indigenous people face, lack of wifi access seems quite trivial as the government fails to provide drinkable water to many rural Indigenous communities while at the same time continuing to improve large cities. If issues like wifi or water access were problems faced by middle and upper-class Torontonians, you best believe that Doug Ford would swoop in like superman to fix these problems. It is clear that his government cares very little about the way Ontario's minority populations suffer. The Ford government must stop this facade of being the “good guy” by implementing useless strategies that leave poor and rural communities behind and unable to receive a proper education. It seems as if Doug Ford has forgotten that Ontario does not simply consist of rich Torontonians.