Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I thank the witnesses for being here this afternoon and giving us a brief background on your expertise, which will help this committee to complete our study and come up with some positive recommendations in this area.
As you know, the federal government is committed to work with all levels—provinces, territories, municipalities, and the others—in partnership to focus on a long-term infrastructure plan for remote and rural areas. As a matter of fact, only last week Minister Lebel had already launched a process in that direction, which will help.
Last week I was reading in the Canadian Chamber of Commerce report, which you mentioned in the beginning, called “The Business Case for Investing in Canada's Remote Communities”, and I was struck with the observation it made in the executive summary. It said:
Despite many sources of government support and significant federal spending directed at rural/remote areas of Canada, consistent progress in building strong, self-sustaining remote communities is not evident.
Then in further paragraphs, I noted that there was emphasis in part in creating private sector investment in these areas.
So I am interested, and as a matter of fact the committee would be interested, to know how you feel our government can improve development efforts in remote rural communities. And specifically if you had to prioritize, say, a set of non-monetary changes—of course we all understand we are dealing with times of fiscal restraint—to encourage participation from multiple sectors in the development of remote rural communities, what would they be?