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This past Friday, municipal leaders from across the Region of Waterloo attended an informative, invitation-only, lunch-and-learn seminar hosted by the Board Members of SouthWestern Integrated Fibre Technology (SWIFT). This event was the first in a series of information sharing sessions that will take place across Southwestern Ontario, Caledon and the Niagara Region.

Earlier this month, SWIFT released its first in a series of upcoming Request for Proposals (RFP) that outlined a complete list of deliverables and requirements for the design, construction, operation and maintenance of an ultra-high speed, open access, fibre optic backbone network for Southwestern Ontario, Caledon and the Niagara Region.

“The Region of Waterloo joined SWIFT as a full partner, contributing $2.2 million in funding towards the project, on May 1, 2017,” said Regional Chair, Ken Seiling. “Regional Council has recognized the importance of SWIFT to the Region and Ontario.”

“SWIFT is grateful for the Region of Waterloo’s partnership and the opportunity to introduce our Board of Directors to some of Waterloo’s municipal and economic development leaders,” said Gerry Marshall, Board Chair at SWIFT. “The lunch-and-learn initiative grew out of SWIFT’s recent strategic planning process and our ongoing commitment to cultivate strong relationships with our member communities.”

“One of SWIFT’s greatest strengths has been our ability to develop relationships with and gather support from upper and lower-tier municipalities, First Nation communities, schools and school boards, hospitals and health care organizations, and private enterprises,” said Geoff Hogan, Chief Executive Officer at SWIFT. “In that spirit, we have decided to use our Board of Directors meetings as an opportunity to travel to various locations across the region and build upon those relationships.”


About the SWIFT Initiative

SWIFT is a not-for-profit, collective broadband initiative that is funding the construction of an affordable, open-access, ultra high-speed fibre-optic regional broadband network for everyone in Southwestern Ontario, Caledon and the Niagara Region. To overcome our region’s longstanding broadband infrastructure gaps, SWIFT has developed a long-term plan to help more than 3.5 million Ontarians to connect and keep pace in a changing digital world. SWIFT membership is open to any community or organization in southwestern Ontario that needs connectivity to any of its locations. Members benefit from SWIFT’s significant procurement expertise, including aggregated demand, negotiated rates, and support in preparing RFPs for broadband services. As a buying group, SWIFT also ensures greater competition between telecom service providers which will lead to better services at lower prices in member communities.

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