Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thankfully I'm in an urban area, which I think in this particular audit highlights what the Auditor General puts in very poignant words. It's one that I will focus on today, which is the digital divide.
It's no secret, Mr. Chair and witnesses, that Canada experiences many divides, particularly now more than ever. It's exacerbated, of course, by the fact that our services, in this case digital services, provide an enhanced barrier. It's made very clear, by the remarks of the Auditor General and in the report, that the digital divide not only persists between rural and urban areas but between non-indigenous and indigenous areas.
I think this is a serious point to make and one that I think differentiates between the kind of Canada that people in urban Canada experience and the kind of Canada that indigenous folks experience. I think it's part of Canada's national crime that we continue to see this great disparity between those services among indigenous and non-indigenous folks.
I hope that the territorial acknowledgement that each and every one of you provided today provides some reflection that, when you do those acknowledgements, it's not simply to acknowledge where you are to check a box but it's to understand that we have a responsibility. That responsibility extends deeply into the national consciousness of how these services and how those promises are to be manifest in the decisions that we have, the decisions we make and the decisions each and every one of you make.
I'll speak to the digital divide hopefully to give some greater understanding of why it persists. We are in 2023, and indigenous folks are still left behind at a greater percentage than 50%. There have been billions of dollars now committed—you've spoken to some of them—and we still continue to see audits like this. I'm very disappointed by this.
I'm from Alberta. We experienced huge and massive wildfires across the north and the Northwest Territories, and many of these communities are rural. Many of these communities are remote, and many of these communities are indigenous. If we don't act, if we simply wait another three years, we're putting lives at stake. We're putting people at stake. We're putting whole communities at stake.
I hope you understand how serious this is to the longevity of these communities, which are suffering from a catastrophe, a climate crisis that can only be abated by the participation and deployment of all of our available resources, which include Internet access. That's one of the most important pieces of information sharing we could possibly have in a country as large as Canada.
I want to focus on the fact that rural and remote Canadians have a disproportionate responsibility for and disproportionate impact from the crises that are facing the country, and it's up to us to make sure we actually address those with good tools, like good Internet.
I'd like to speak now to a fact that was mentioned. The department has committed that there would be 98% connectivity by 2026.
Considering the words of the Auditor General and my concern that Canadians, in particular indigenous Canadians, get left behind, who are the 2%? Who does the minister anticipate the 2% to be? Is it urban areas? Is it in rural areas? I would likely guess that in three years' time when another audit comes out it may in fact be indigenous communities.
I'll give an opportunity now to Mr. Kennedy to respond to that, I think, fair question on behalf of Canadians.