Oh, oh!
Evidence of meeting #3 for Industry, Science and Technology in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was million.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #3 for Industry, Science and Technology in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was million.
A recording is available from Parliament.
9:45 a.m.
Some hon. members
Oh, oh!
9:45 a.m.
Liberal
Anthony Rota Liberal Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON
This morning I want to talk about the community access program, which has been cut. It really hits people in their homes and their small communities.
You understand the program. It allows Canadians affordable public access to the Internet, and it helps Canadians with education, with health, and with business. We talk about business developing, and you have to have access to a lot of the electronic equipment that's out there. Unfortunately, when you're in isolated communities, or you're in rural communities, you don't always have that access.
Letters went out indicating that the funding had been cut. When asked about the funding, both you and Minister Goodyear gave exactly the same answer, which was that the program had fulfilled its mandate.
What did you mean by that?
9:50 a.m.
Conservative
Tony Clement Conservative Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON
Like a moth to a flame, I'm drawn by your first comment.
9:50 a.m.
Some hon. members
Oh, oh!
9:50 a.m.
Liberal
Anthony Rota Liberal Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON
But we don't want to kill too much time, because I have a few more questions, so please go quickly on that.
9:50 a.m.
Conservative
Tony Clement Conservative Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON
You talk about stereotypes in northern Ontario. I live in northern Ontario. I work in northern Ontario. I pay taxes in northern Ontario. The problem with your point of view is that's what got Liberals into trouble in northern Ontario. There's only one Liberal seat left in northern Ontario, because they had the arrogance to think that only they could speak for northern Ontario.
9:50 a.m.
Liberal
Anthony Rota Liberal Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON
I'm sorry, but could you answer the question? What did you mean by saying—
9:50 a.m.
Conservative
Tony Clement Conservative Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON
I just wanted to make that clear on the record, since you made the—
9:50 a.m.
Liberal
9:50 a.m.
Conservative
9:50 a.m.
Liberal
9:50 a.m.
Conservative
Tony Clement Conservative Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON
It was a direct attack on my point of view. I'll give you that much.
Let me just talk about CAP for a second. You said I gave the same answer as Mr. Goodyear. I did not do that, so—
9:50 a.m.
Liberal
9:50 a.m.
Conservative
Tony Clement Conservative Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON
I'm correcting the record.
Clearly what happened was that the budget, instead of having one fund for CAP, had two funds for CAP. One fund was closed down except for $2 million for those CAP sites that were outside a 25-kilometre radius of a competing access point, but the other fund is in fact funding the remaining sites on CAP.
Obviously, one set of letters went out not referring to the fact that there was going to be another fund that was going to pick up the slack. We've corrected that mistake. The funding was always there. It was never cut. It was always part of the budget. It was never not part of the budget. We've corrected the record as quickly as we possibly could.
Letters have already gone out. They were received electronically at the CAP sites yesterday. They're all aware that their funding is in place.
9:50 a.m.
Liberal
Anthony Rota Liberal Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON
Just to clarify, that's the rural broadband strategy. That's what you're talking about. That's where the money will be coming from.
9:50 a.m.
Liberal
Anthony Rota Liberal Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON
Now, that is geared to capital expenditures. CAP, on the other hand, is geared to programming, if I'm not mistaken.
Were there any changes made in the mandate of this program? I understand that the rural broadband strategy allows for hardware to be put in. The other one is a program. How do you justify that?
9:50 a.m.
Conservative
Tony Clement Conservative Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON
I'm going to leave this for my deputy to answer, Mr. Chair.
9:50 a.m.
Richard Dicerni Deputy Minister, Department of Industry
You're all familiar with the program for CAP and what it does. The minister has clarified that the funding will be provided to all the networks in the provinces. The initial information that was conveyed was based on limited information, but now the full scope is available.
In terms of the rural broadband, we have received a number of applications on this program, many more than we had—
9:50 a.m.
Liberal
Anthony Rota Liberal Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON
Could I interrupt for a second? I have a couple more questions, and at the speed you're going, you're going to take up all my time.
I'll give you the questions and you can answer them all. I'm sure the chair will not interrupt you in your wonderful answer.
This is my question. You have the $200 million there. All of a sudden there's $13 million that has to be taken from that $200 million.
Was $13 million more put into that program? If not, would it be fair to say that Canadians in rural Canada are losing $13 million to subsidize Canadians in all parts, both urban and rural, as long as they're a little bit out of the way? Basically, was that $13 million replaced, or was it just taken out of the $200 million?
I'll let you continue from there.
9:50 a.m.
Conservative
Tony Clement Conservative Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON
Before he answers that, I just want to state for the record that the first cut to this program actually occurred during the Liberal regime.
9:50 a.m.
Liberal
9:50 a.m.
Conservative
Tony Clement Conservative Parry Sound—Muskoka, ON
They cut $20 million out of the program and then left the rest of it. I want to state that for the record.
