Northeast B.C. fibre-optic project’s deadline extended for fifth time

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — Canada’s largest telecommunications firm has received a deadline extension for its project in northeast B.C.

According to an announcement by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), dated February 2nd 2026, it says the order to postpone the project’s completion by Shaw Cablesystems G.P.’s transport fibre project in northeast British Columbia was approved after the company was acquired by Rogers Communications.

Rogers had initially announced a merger with Shaw Cablesystems in 2021, which was finalized in the spring of 2023. 

The project was made possible by CRTC’s Broadband Fund, a project “contribut[ing]  to a broad effort by federal, provincial and territorial governments to address the gap in connectivity in underserved rural, remote and Indigenous communities across Canada.”

The project, which was initially scheduled to be completed by the spring of 2024, involved 150 kilometres of fibre optic cable being laid in the ground to serve several communities between Fort St. John and Chetwynd, including Attachie, Bear Flat, Charlie Lake, Farrell Creek, Moberly Lake, Saulteau First Nations and West Moberly First Nations.

Shaw was approved by the fund to complete the project within three years, by February 2024. The extension that was granted was the fifth involving the project after prior requests in 2021, 2023 and 2024 and 2025.

The approval means Rogers has up an additional seven months to complete the project, with a timeline of spring 2027.