The industry ministery has approved CANARIE’s cost-recovery plan and universities and colleges connected to the ultra-high speed network of the government-funded, non-profit organization will not have to pay any additional fees.
Today, Jim Roche, CEO of CANARIE, issued a statement, saying Minister of Industry Christian Paradis has approved its plan, which calls for $11.72 million in total cost to recover over the course of CANARIE’s mandate.
During the course of a consultation process it carried out, Roche said, CANARIE looked into the option of levying a fee to research and education institutions connected to the organization’s network and found there was no need burden them with additional charges.
“Information gathered through the consultation demonstrated that these institutions are already paying for access to the network through fees to their provincial and territorial networks, and that the balance between institutional, provincial and federal investments in national research and education network is reasonable,” Roche said in a statement. “CANARIE will not be levying additional connection fees.”
CANARIE provides the fibre optic backbone that connects provincial and territorial research networks like British Columbia’s BCnet and Ontario’s ORION and to other networks around the world. Institutions who are members pay an annual $2,500 fee.
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Through CANARIE, researchers in one end of the country can connect to another. It also allows Canadian researchers to connect to international projects, such as the CERN particle physics laboratory in Switzerland.
Over the past five years, traffic on the CANARIE network increased 587 per cent, and is expected to increase tenfold within the next five years.
Approval of the cost-recovery plan also means that funding to CANARIE for years two and three of its current mandate will be released. Funding for CANARIE’s three-year mandate is $62 million, or $20.7 million a year.
Prior to the budget cut, CANARIE was receiving $24 million a year.
The approval of the plan and release of funding for CANARIE was welcomed by at least one university official.