The Woodstock, N.B-based telecom will spend the money over five years on its rural broadband network. Xplornet plans to offer speeds of of up to 50 MBps by the end of 2019 and double that by the end of 2020. The company is taking advantage of the federal government’s Accelerated Investment Initiative, which lets companies claim a first-year deduction on capital investments three times the regular amount. (The Logic)

Talking point: In November 2018, the late auditor general Michael Ferguson issued a report that found Ottawa had “no plan” to get high-speed internet to rural communities, despite promising for years to be working on it. Friday’s announcement will slightly improve things, but it will only address a fraction of the problem—and that’s if the money bucks the trend of past government-backed initiatives and is spent properly. The federal government’s $500-million plan launched in December 2016 was intended to connect 300 rural communities but did not ask private-sector recipients to demonstrate that their projects required public funding, thereby potentially wasting taxpayer funds.