If I understand correctly, you want us to present our project and to talk about what we are doing in our rural areas.
More than three years ago, the RCM of Montcalm began a project to deploy a fibre-optic network to homes. Fifteen years ago, as part of a provincial program called Villages branchés, the RCM had already installed a hundred or so kilometres of fibre-optic cable in order to connect the school boards. So it wanted to use that network and make it available to its residents.
The RCM did a detailed study to find out the number of residents and residences in its territory that were underserved. That turned out to be 7,100 of 22,000 residences. Those figures were very different from the ones that the Government of Canada had. Local service providers claimed that the region was being well served, but our audit of the municipality's residents showed us that the minimum speed was not being achieved.
The project had financial and technological aspects. The RCM obtained funding of $12.9 million through the usual processes for that kind of installation. The amount was approved by the Quebec Ministère des Affaires municipales et de l'Occupation du territoire and by the RCM.
A major federal grant program, called Connecting Canadians—Digital Canada 150, came to support the project in quite a significant way. We had submitted a grant application to the department of the day, known as Industry Canada. The Montcalm project was selected for its excellence. We received grants of $4.7 million, the largest amount to be awarded to a company that did not exist at the time. The RCM was actually still in the process of establishing a not-for-profit organization that would build the network.
This project is close to the RCM's heart. It is being carried out by and for all residents and it is being led by a not-for-profit organization of four non-elected and four elected officials. The project is currently under way.
We are perhaps in a good position to explain one matter of importance to us, an operational constraint on our project: rights of way. For more than 30 years, the field of telecommunications in the country has become increasingly deregulated, as illustrated, for example, by the historic decisions made in 1985, 1987, 1990 and 1992. The CRTC looks very favourably on competition in telecommunications and innovation in Canada. But one obstacle remains: rights of way. Support structures belong to the legal owners, those who built the network and who control access to it.
The number one rule for success in telecommunications is to obtain the right of way. It is still very difficult for us to get access to support structures in our province because all the poles are equally divided between Hydro-Québec and Bell Canada. We also have to modernize those networks at our own expense: the last group to ask for access to them is responsible for the costs of renovating them. That regularly requires us to bury the fibres and to use methods of communication and transmission that are much more costly. We are therefore prevented from progressing as fast and as far as we would like.
I do not know how much time I have left, and I could probably keep talking to you about this for many hours.
But that is basically where we are. The network is being built. The RCM decided that it would have one, and it will indeed have a network bringing optical fibre to the home.
Would you like to add anything, Mr. Thouin?