One of the reasons I call it Digital Canada 150 is that, as I said, at the time of Canada's Confederation what was next for connecting and building this country was the railway. Of course, since then we've built the Trans-Canada Highway, ports, airports. We've done all kinds of things to connect this country. Of course, that requires maintenance. It's not cheap in a country as large as ours, with a climate such as ours, but what's next, in my view, is the digital gap that exists across this country. We've taken action as the government in the past. Previous governments as well have taken action in the past to try to gap this divide. It was interesting having a conversation with former industry minister John Manley about the challenges that he had not that long ago, by the way, in trying to overcome some of the challenges this country faced. But because of such rapid adaptation, and because it has been a priority for governments, where we are today is, I think, a real position of envy around the world.
When you go to far-off aboriginal communities and to very rural and remote parts of this country—people who are working in parts of our country in natural resources—you realize very quickly how you can be stranded technologically. The gap that causes in terms of learning opportunities for kids, delivery of health services, economic opportunities to participate in world markets with local goods and services that are offered around the world, creates a massive divide, and it has to be fixed.
We are proposing a $305-million, one-time investment over the coming five years, which will shorten this gap. By the way, there's a specific reason that we say five megabytes per second. It's because five megabytes is considered the floor of the international standard of what constitutes high-speed Internet around the world. It allows for the streaming of the 720p HD video on any device in that footprint that has that download speed. The capacity and the speed are important, and it raises Canada to an international standard. We say that's the floor, and when we work in partnership with the private sector to build this infrastructure going forward, that's going to be the minimum standard. It's essential that we connect communities and that all Canadians feel part of the digital future that's on its way, and we have to prepare for it. Building this infrastructure is the responsibility of all of us, collectively.
Some people were critical of this when we announced this in the budget. They asked why this is the role of the government, and said the private sector could do this. We've been waiting, I think, for a very long time for the private sector to step up, and ante up, and build this infrastructure. Frankly, it hasn't happened.
There is too steep a divide between urban and rural. It's too large a gap, and communities are being left too far behind in these opportunities. So the way in which we are going to invest this money, moving it forward in partnership with the private sector, when we announce the details soon, you will see that we are pushing this country forward in a way that I think makes perfect sense, to ensure that we stay competitive in all parts of our country.