Mr. Speaker, tonight I am happy to highlight for the hon. member for Kenora our government's progress in improving connectivity for all Canadians.
Today, as we all know, high-speed Internet is essential for all Canadians, no matter where they live. My colleague across the way has raised some very important projects in his region. I am pleased to let him know that the work is progressing well and is close to being completed. In fact, the portion of the project in Stratton and Nigigoonsiminikaaning first nation is operational, and the remaining elements are due to be completed by the end of next month.
We are committed to the principle that no Canadian household will be left behind and we are on track to meet our goal of connecting all Canadians by 2030. That is good news, but we knew that more work needed to be done, so we accelerated our timelines and are now on track to connect 98% of Canadians by 2026, years earlier than previously ever thought possible.
A recent example of our success is with our Connect to Innovate program. By the end of this program in 2023, nearly 400,000 households will have benefited from these investments. In fact, 100 communities are already benefiting from these important investments, with high-speed access now available. Canadians can also track the status of the projects in their areas with the new online tracker we launched this past fall. Not only does it share what stage the development of their project is in; it also provides the expected completion date.
However, the most significant tool we have is the recently announced universal broadband fund. The $1.7-billion UBF is the program Canadians have been asking for. It will fund broadband infrastructure projects to bring high-speed Internet to rural and remote communities. It will support whatever network infrastructure is needed, whether backbone or last mile, and it will be the best to meet the diverse geographical and regional connectivity needs all across our beautiful country. I am pleased to say that we have already begun announcing projects under the rapid response stream that will have folks connected by November of this year.
Earlier this month, the minister announced $6.7 million to connect 1,977 homes in five communities in rural B.C.; particularly in Pemberton, Steelhead, Ryder Lake, northwest of Princeton and the north Sunshine Coast. In Starland County and Stettler County in Alberta, 7,179 underserved households will be connected, and northeast of Sudbury, 74 underserved households, including 68 indigenous households, will be connected. Furthermore, 190 households in the Perth—Wellington region and 120 households in the Niagara region will be connected too. These are all exactly the types of projects this stream was intended to fund: small local projects that will make an immediate impact.
We will be making more announcements in the coming weeks and we always look forward to continuing to work closely with a variety of partners in every part of Canada to achieve our ambitious objectives. Canadians can count on us. Canadians will be connected.