Connected Coast Fibre Optic Cable Installation Project – Victoria Harbour – Public Comments Invited

April 3, 2023 – Transport Canada and Fisheries and Oceans Canada must determine whether the proposed Connected Coast Fibre Optic Cable Installation Project – Victoria Harbour, located in Victoria, BC is likely to cause significant adverse environmental effects.

To help inform this determination, the authorities are inviting comments from the public respecting that determination. All comments received will be considered public and may be posted online. For more information, individuals should consult the Privacy Notice on the Registry website.

Written comments must be submitted by May 3, 2023 to:

Transport Canada
Impact Assessment Pacific Region
820 - 800 Burrard Street
Vancouver, British Columbia V6Z 2J8
Email: PACEnvironment-environnement@tc.gc.ca

The Proposed Project

The Connected Coast Partnership was formed as a joint venture between CityWest and the Strathcona Regional District with public funding and a mandate to design, build and operate the Connected Coast subsea fibre-optic network in coastal British Columbia (BC) (the Project).This fibre network will improve the access, capacity, affordability, and reliability of Internet and other telecom services for residents in rural and remote communities. The cable will come ashore to connect to power infrastructure at over 159 landing sites.

Due to the large geographical extent of the Project, it has been broken into blocks which are further broken into packages. This assessment focuses on federal lands involved in the cable segments connecting the landing sites at Shirley, Victoria Canadian Coast Guard Station, and Sidney, which are part of Block 7-Package 2 of the Project. Fisheries and Oceans Canada/Canadian Coast Guard is a federal authority for the Victoria CCG landing site only as DFO is granting a right of way for the installation of the cable segment within/on the Victoria Canadian Coast Guard base.