Yes, we actually have supported a number of issues for the benefit of all RCMs.
In Quebec, RCMs were strong participants in the first wave of applications under the Digital Canada 150 program and the Connect to Innovate programs. Several tens of millions of dollars have been paid in grants and a number of RCMs have projects under way.
To respond to one of your questions just now, I would say that the approaches are reproducible, and they are being reproduced. Rural regions are becoming organized.
We are talking about the RCM of Antoine-Labelle, a major RCM. They have just started a $50-million project to establish a fibre-optic network to serve the homes in a very large rural area. The project will take several years.
As I was saying earlier, deregulation in Canada has happened in a very progressive and very organized way. We have all benefited. We are at the point where everything is completely deregulated, which allows us to have competitive infrastructures. That is what we are in the process of doing: we are building infrastructures in places where others do not want to go.
Our economic model needs grants. We have to reduce our capital costs in order to create sufficient cash flow to keep the companies operating. Rights of way are the final obstacle stopping us from deploying our networks. If we have no access to the structures, it is impossible, unless we dangle from clouds to get access. So we have to use the infrastructures of competing companies, like Bell Canada or other smaller local suppliers. Hydro-Québec is not actually a competitor, but it owns supporting infrastructures.
That is how we do it currently. We have to submit applications and plans. It is very organized and very structured, and the administrative processes come with very precise timelines. When the structures are in a state of disrepair and unable to take any extra load, the owner asks us, as the last group to want to install a cable, to pay all the costs of modifying, upgrading and modernizing the structures. Those costs make the project less profitable.
Let me take advantage of a forum like this one to emphasize that, at the end of the day, it is extremely important to understand that we must have access to the structures. We already have access to the capital, to the technology, and to the customer base, and that is important. When we sell a service to the people in our RCM, you can believe me when I say that they subscribe routinely and naturally, because it is a community project.