Stonewall Town Council's authorized a loan of $250,000 to John Q Public Inc. to create a fibre-optic network in the town.

Council gave the by-law first reading last Tuesday.

CAO Wally Melnyk says it's a project involving several Capital Region municipalities, including Winnipeg, adding John Q Public was established by those municipalities, and is working with RF Now on the project.

"A lack of high-speed internet in our community was determined to be a barrier in a survey we did in late fall of 2018," he says. "It was one of the major causes for businesses locally to either not want to expand, or potentially even look at leaving our community."

Melnyk says it'll be a significant benefit to the local business community.

"We have some of the data to support that," he says. "But absolutely, fibre-optic cable is the highway of the 21st century. Years ago, a community had to be either by a river, then by a rail line, then by a roadway. Now, you have to be by fibre-optic cable in order to ensure that you can compete."