Thank you for the question.
I would confirm that affordability is the top concern for us in all of our work on telecom, including the universal broadband fund. I'd be happy to elaborate in more detail.
When project proponents come forward, we are very interested to know what prices they are going to charge, whether those prices are appropriate and whether they're comparable to prices you might find in the market. We don't want to have people, for example, in rural areas paying prices that are far higher than what would be considered reasonable, or that are out of step with prices in other similar markets and so on. We require, as part of the contracts we sign with companies, that they tell us what the pricing will be. That's a key consideration for us in terms of whether we proceed with the project. The key consideration for us is to make sure the price is affordable, appropriate and comparable to market prices in Canada.
The particular concern we've been discussing with the Auditor General is around the role of income.