Supporting Broadband and Infrastructure Expansion Act

The Supporting Broadband and Infrastructure Expansion Act, 2021 (French: Loi de 2021 soutenant l'expansion de l'Internet et des infrastructures) is an act of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario relating to the expansion of broadband.

In 2020, 70% of the population of Northern Ontario received decent service, defined as a download speed of 50 megabits per second and an upload speed of 10 megabits per second, but this was largely concentrated in the five major cities.^[1]

The legislation was passed after the Government of Ontario allocated CA$2,800,000 to improving broadband access budget in the 2021 Ontario budget.^[2]

The act amends the Planning Act to exclude Ministeral Zoning Orders from planning laws and policy including Provincial Planning Statements.^[3][4] The act states that MZOs "are not required and are deemed to never have been required” to be consistent with the Provincial Policy Statement.^[5]

• Getting Ontario Connected Act