Inverness County is calling for submissions for its new cellphone service expansion initiative. Council has separated a maximum of $250,000 to help fund new cell phone towers in the area. 

Like in many rural areas across Canada, cell phone service has been lacking in the county. The municipality's Chief Administrative Officer Keith MacDonald said residents have brought the issue to council on several occasions. “As we all know, there’s numerous gaps for cell service throughout Inverness County,” MacDonald said. “Even some areas that do have service, it’s kind of waning and it’s just completely lost at times. Certainly, even more so now with this pandemic and the state of emergency and need, it’s been brought to council’s attention over and over again, and council has been trying to come up with solutions.” MacDonald said he’s heard of people getting into car accidents and being unable to call for help because of lack cell connection.

It’s even become an economic issue for the tourism sector. “People expect that type of service when they travel,” MacDonald said.

The municipality is open to playing different roles in assisting companies develop the infrastructure. It could provide funding for towers, for example, or help with land acquisition. It all depends on the submission. 

At the moment, federal and provincial governments aren’t providing financial support. “We’ve not been able to find a program that supports through either level of government, funding of cell tower infrastructure,” MacDonald said. “That could change. We’re anticipating that the new infrastructure program as it’s related to COVID-19 will hopefully broaden the type of initiatives they will be looking at. Certainly, I think this would fit within that scope in addressing COVID issues.”

Although the county is expecting companies to include in their proposal a detailed map of areas lacking connection, MacDonald said municipal staff have a good idea of which regions are particularly affected. The Dundee area is one of them. “Richmond County could be a partner there,” MacDonald said, “Certainly, we’ve been talking to them.”

The Margarees, Port Hood, Inverness and La Prairie are more parts of the county where residents get little to no service.