The Dean of Economics and Business at Thompson Rivers University says it is boggling that some communities near Kamloops don’t have high-speed internet.

Mike Henry used Clearwater as an example of a community without that infrastructure, as he says he recently found out from one of the district’s councillors.

“And if you’re talking about small business, the future of the BC Interior’s small and medium-sized business is accessing international markets. To do that, you have to be able to play in that market, which means having access to high-speed internet.”

Henry says it is the mandate of federal and provincial government to provide economic infrastructure.

“Government should not be running the economy in my view, and I think from a solid economic view. But government does provide the infrastructure. Whether it be fibre optic, whether it be the high-speed (internet), whether it be roads for transport, whether it be pipelines so we can get our product to market.”

Henry brought that concern to a meeting in Kamloops with the federal Minister of Digital Government Joyce Murray last month.