Thank you, Chair.
Again at this committee we have a report from the Auditor General and departments that have said they accept the findings of the Auditor General, yet in the testimony I've heard, in particular in the answers to Mr. Christopherson's question, I sense push-back and defensiveness around the conclusion of the Auditor General.
Mr. Knubley, the Auditor General said that your department did not have a national strategy. Mr. Christopherson asked you why, and if I heard you correctly, I heard not only in response to his questions and to some of the other questions you repeatedly going back to the Johnston report of 18 years ago. It identified a strategy for which the objectives seem largely still unfulfilled 18 years later.
I'm going to repeat the question. Why was there no national strategy in particular after the CRTC declared broadband to be a public necessity? It's easy to declare something a necessity. Those are just words. Once you do that, though, there has to be a strategy and a plan to achieve objectives.
Please, do you accept the Auditor General's assessment that there was no national strategy, and if so, why?