Thank you for the chance to comment.
Maybe I could briefly provide a slightly broader response to the question.
We want to underline that we agree completely that there are significant coverage gaps in rural Canada and in indigenous communities. It is absolutely the case that historically, indigenous communities have much less connectivity than other communities in Canada. That is actually an issue that we are working diligently to try to fix. We would never want to minimize the concerns the honourable member raised about this gap.
What I will say though, because I think it is important context, is that the gap is rapidly in the process of being closed. The focus of our efforts, the focus of all the resources and efforts I've talked about here before the committee today, is on closing gaps in rural and indigenous communities. While there remains a significant gap, I think it's contextually worth noting that the gap is closing rapidly.
If you look in 2018, only about 31% of indigenous communities had access to broadband Internet. This year we're projecting that more than 50% will have access to broadband Internet. It still means that half of indigenous communities don't have it, but that's actually a material, significant improvement in five years. We do expect more than 80% of indigenous communities will have it by the 2026 time period, which is almost a tripling of the communities that have access.
There is still a way to go. We would agree with that. It is likely that the 2% we talk about when we get to this 98% coverage in 2026 will consist of the most remote and difficult communities to access. For example, if you're extending fibre optic cable to a community, as my colleague said, you often have to dig a trench. It may have to be hundreds of kilometres through the wilderness. There are going to be very remote communities in the north and so on where that's really not practical.