SHEET HARBOUR – One month after Fiona swept through the Eastern Shore, many residents and businesses in the Sheet Harbour area are still without Internet, or any clear indication of when they can expect their service to be restored.
“This is more than just an inconvenience,” said Janice Christie, president of the Sheet Harbour Chamber of Commerce & Civic Affairs. “It undermines the very integrity of the community’s social and economic fabric at a time when our area is working hard to position itself as a great place to live, work and visit.”
Christie told The Journal that she lost Internet at her home in Sheet Harbour during the storm in late September. Since then, she’s been trying to get an estimated fix time from her provider, Seaside Wireless Communications, almost every day.
“First, it was the [transmission] tower that needed to be looked after,” she said. “Then, they said that this got looked after, even though they didn’t fully describe what they meant by that. But then, they said there was something else they needed to do to get us back up and running and, so, that was in the works. It’s still not complete. Plus, they say they have no timeline as to when it will be.”
Christie was not alone along that stretch of the Eastern Shore, where roughly 800 rural people increasingly depend on the Internet to access public services and conduct business.
Tina Boutilier runs a home-based business on the Highway 7 near Sheet Harbour Legion hall.
“We have no Internet and no set time for it to be repaired,” she said about her service from Eastlink. “They always tell me there’s no set date, but there is a [repair] ticket out for it. I got an email in the morning [on Oct. 14] saying a technician will be here between three and five p.m. Nobody showed up. And then I got one again [on Oct. 17] at 8 a.m. saying somebody will be there. They were here around 11 a.m., but they couldn’t do anything. They just inspected the line.”
Cathy Bitar, who operates Dufferin Variety & Pizza in nearby Port Dufferin, said that – while she’s been able to provide customers with debit services, which are networked through her working Starlink satellite service — her Bell Aliant-enabled lottery terminal was still down. Just as worrying, she said, the Balcom Community Centre also has had no Internet since Fiona: “That’s really sad, because we had that as a comfort centre and we couldn’t even provide Internet for people.”
Christie said disappointment and frustration in the community are growing with each day without service. In a Facebook post on Oct. 21, she asked, “Are there still residents along the Shore who are without internet, landline or cell service? If so, please send a message if you are willing to share what’s been happening (or not!) to you.”
Dianne McDonald posted: “Disgraceful it’s been over a month now.”
Lisa Smith-McInnis noted: “Same old story every time I call. ‘We need to resend a technician. It’s a tower problem.’”
Tanya Farris Malay added: “Church Point Variety [store] also still has no internet.”
Ollie Douma reported: “Friends of ours on Ferry Lane [in] Moser River have no phone or internet yet. Also, there is no cell service. They are seniors with health issues that have been coming to use our phone.”
At any given time over the past several years, as many as seven companies have served the Sheet Harbour area with Internet, including leading providers Bell, Eastlink, and Seaside (which was sold to Rogers Communications in 2021).
The actual number of residential and business customers in the area is not entirely clear, but the provincial government’s Rural High-Speed Initiative — which is designed, in part, to help overcome rural barriers, such as poor infrastructure, sparse populations, and vulnerability to prolonged weather-related outages — has announced it expects to hook-up about 240 communities there by February of next year. One of those, Watt Section, will involve 62 households and businesses.
The Journal was unable to reach representatives of Bell or Eastlink by press time, but according to their websites on Oct. 18, neither were “aware of” any new “service interruptions” during the previous 24 hours. Meanwhile, many other homes, business and public locations in Sheet Harbour do have Internet service.
In an email on Oct. 21, Seaside’s General Manager David Horton said, “We did have a serious, Hurricane Fiona-related problem with our tower at Malay Falls that was eventually fixed on Wednesday [Oct. 19]. Customers served by that tower as well as downstream sites at Lochaber Mines Road and Watt Section Road should now be back on line. Our connection analysts report seeing no issues in those areas at this time. There is also a 900-MHz Access Point on our Marinette tower that needs repair (about eight customers impacted) and we are working with our provincial contractor, Westower, to resolve that issue, to get this looked at … Anyone still having problems should contact our Tech Support team at 1-888-965-5511.”
Still, according to Christie, “I am on the Marinette tower and I learned a number of Watt Section customers were reconnected … but because I am Marinette tower … my issue was ongoing. They are just continuing to say it’s being looked at but no solution as yet... and still no timeline. I was at O’Regan’s [last week] using their Wi-Fi while my car was being serviced.”
She added: “I can say, tongue in cheek, that I am president of the chamber of commerce. But the fact is I am. I have my own email to maintain, plus the Chamber’s. And I [now] have to leave my home to check and respond to emails. I can read them on my phone, even though they are always a little late coming in. But there are too many emails for me to try to sit and respond [that way] and [also] cross-reference with all the files I have on my computer. It’s very difficult to keep up with business.”
Besides, Boutilier said, public Internet spots aren’t ideal. “I feel secure using Internet in my home with all the passwords for Wi Fi and stuff. But, when I go into public places, and I have to do my online banking or secure things, you know, I am leery of it with all the amount of fraud and scams out there.”
The bigger and longer-term issue, Christie said, is fairness — an issue she hopes to pursue with Halifax Regional Municipality Mayor Mike Savage when he meets with her and other members of Sheet Harbour’s Chamber of Commerce in December.
“We are trying to build economic development in the area,” she said. “New people are moving here. Many of them are retired, but many of them are relocating here and bringing their jobs with them on their computers. They need reliable Internet and cell service. This is why it’s so frustrating. I’m not the only one that can’t do daily business without the Internet.”
