High speed Internet service for the RM of Morris has been a topic of discussion for some time now.

Ralph Groening, reeve for the RM of Morris, said requests from the community have triggered action.

"We've been challenged by our residents, and by our businesses particularly, about the lack of high speed Internet service, and so we've looked at various options that might address that problem," said Groening.

He noted council did not go through with a proposal from the local school division.

"We did have discussions with the Red River Valley School Division... they have high speed fiber to all of the schools to their school division. We've had some discussions with them. The RM of Morris Council has chosen not to continue the sale of that fire optic."

Instead, council is now considering joining communities such as Altona and Winkler, who've signed on with Valley Fiber.

"We've begun discussions with Valley Fiber out of Winkler, to see what would be the possibility of connecting our communities using their expertise to provide high speed Internet," said Groening.

He gave an outline of what discussions have looked like so far.

"The hope is, and the broad understanding that we have with Valley Fiber, is that they will provide us with hard fiber in the ground to Rosenort, Riverside, and Lowe Farm, and they also assure us they can provide us with air fiber to all of the residents in the RM of Morris."

Groening noted the Town of Morris is having separate discussions regarding high speed Internet, and is not a part of this particular proposal.

"This proposal to the RM of Morris, it was made possible because of a $10.4 million federal (Connect to Innovate Program) infrastructure grant, and we're certainly happy to, hopefully, be able to take advantage of the federal initiative to provide high speed Internet service," he added.