There are a number of government initiatives in place which help rural and remote areas access broadband service. These initiatives are greatly appreciated by Canadians as a whole.
In 2002, we launched a pilot project to provide broadband service as part of a rural and northern development plan. That pilot, which relied on the participation of the private sector, local communities and municipalities, was aimed at helping communities access broadband service, where it was not currently available.
That program ended on March 31, 2007, and it was a success. Indeed, we helped more than 900 communities develop a broadband infrastructure. Approximately 2,000 Canadian communities still have very limited access to broadband. However, I can assure you that for the 900 communities that have been able to access this program in recent years, it has been a major success.
However, the program was clearly designed to be a pilot project. The Government of Canada has developed new complementary programs to facilitate access to broadband service. I am thinking here of a specific program which partly replaces the one that has now ended. The National Satellite Initiative is a project that was developed jointly by a number of federal government agencies, with a view to providing satellite capacity at an affordable price, so that broadband service can be made available to communities in remote areas and in the Far North. As a result of this initiative, people living in the Far North will now have access to broadband service.