That's wonderful. That's an example of partnership, when we look at SWIFT, municipalities, the provincial government and the federal government. Connecting Canadians in 2013-14 had $250 million. Connect to innovate in 2016-17 had $500 million. Now, in the 2019 budget, the federal government set aside the largest investment of Internet funding from the federal government, close to $1.7 billion. It leverages the work of the provinces, municipalities and, we have to remember, the private sector. You're right.
I was part of the wardens caucus when I worked with Eastlink or Bluewater Cable in that area. I completely understand.
I just want to commend SWIFT for the work that you've done to gather that partnership together. Maybe this is useful to the committee here for making recommendations to the federal government.
What would you say is the success of SWIFT, and how can you look at expanding the SWIFT model with municipalities? You have three or four large cities: London, Waterloo and Windsor. In northern Ontario we had this funded through FedNor. When we look at Blue Sky and NEOnet, they're working with the private sector.
What recommendations do you have for other provinces to do what you've done?