We will turn now to the fifth question: What could be done to ensure that all Canadians, no matter where they live or what their socio-economic status is, have access to emerging and digital media?
The Government of Canada has adopted an approach that consists in enabling competition and encouraging private investment by companies while allowing market forces to prevail whenever possible.
However, the government does recognize there may be a need for government support in regions the market does not reach, particularly in rural and remote areas. As I reported in testimony in November, as part of Canada's economic action plan the Government of Canada provided funding to develop and implement a strategy to extend broadband coverage. To date, 98 projects totalling $139 million have been announced, covering more than 250,000 rural and remote households.
Once the current program is fully implemented, we expect that more than 98% of Canadian households will have access to basic broadband speeds of 1.5 megabits per second by early 2012. These speeds offer a dramatic improvement over dial-up access, and they greatly enhance the online experience of users, allowing Canadians to partake of a wide variety of online activities, including video streaming and teleconferencing.