Thank you, Madam Chair.
Good evening. I thank all of the witnesses for their presence here and their presentations.
From what we can understand, there is undeniably a lack of public money in all this, and there is a lack of political will. That has already been said. This is what we can read between the lines or directly, based on the various testimonies.
However, I would like to hear you talk about another subject, namely the CRTC Notice of Consultation response submitted a short while ago, which concluded that part of the delay in the regions was due to the telecommunications companies themselves. By controlling poles, including Hydro-Quebec poles, several companies are slowing down the deployment of fibre optics.
The Notice of Consultation states that the obstacles are mainly due to the different internal processes of these companies. While this notice only concerns one region, several other anecdotes were heard about other regions. The notice also states that these impediments “do not relate to the common standard for the design, installation and testing of aerial structures.”
The executive summary concludes: “In 2020, the Internet is an essential service and telecommunications companies are slowing down the development of the region”.
Is the behaviour of companies partly to blame for depriving several regions of adequate development, depriving several companies of the capacity to provide online training, depriving employees from teleworking, and encouraging the exodus of young people? Obviously, part of the problem lies in the political arena. Is there another part that is the responsibility of the corporate world?