Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to all the witnesses for the presentations. As you just heard, I have seven minutes. I can't ask every organization questions that I would want to put forward, but I will begin with the Eastern Ontario Wardens' Caucus.
I'm highly interested in this issue of rural broadband and connectivity. I'm an urban member of Parliament, so you might ask why, exactly, someone from London is so interested. Quite frankly, it's an economic issue. It really speaks to the economic vitality of our country, or lack of vitality if we don't get it done.
In London, we have a number of small communities that lack that type of connectivity. We have started, though, as you might know, through the Western Ontario Wardens' Caucus, the SWIFT network, which in process. It's a very exciting initiative that our government was proud to contribute funding towards. You mentioned EORN. As well, there are a number of other municipalities that have, on their own, really spearheaded efforts.
I put this question to you because municipalities have a really unique role in all of this and an important role to play. The big Internet service providers really lack incentives, because obviously it's very costly to build networks in rural communities. Yours is an example. SWIFT is now an example in the southwestern region.
I mentioned other municipalities. To be specific, Stratford in 1990 started its own Internet service, and that continues. For $20 a month in Coquitlam, you can have high-speed Internet through a network that was started and is now run by the city, called the Coquitlam Optical Network Corporation.
I'll give you a third example. You're probably aware of these examples, but it's important to put them on the record.
Olds, Alberta, a small town of 8,500 people, had a problem. That problem was all too common. They couldn't find an Internet service provider to serve their people. Now, because they invested as a municipality, they have every home and business connected to a fibre optic network that is community-owned. Those are really impressive results with all sorts of potential.
We have heard testimony throughout the week from organizations pointing to the role that municipalities have to play in spearheading broadband connectivity. I wonder if you can speak to that based on your experience with the Eastern Ontario Regional Network.