Thank you very much, MP Soroka, through the chair.
Let me start by saying that the news today is from a small community northeast of mine, Tumbler Ridge, which lost its entire Internet connectivity when a beaver chewed through the fibre optic line. As for constructing new lines, that was a one-off, funny incident, but it's not so funny in rural Canada, because we see that a tractor can go through a line and, in 2017, the wildfires that razed northern B.C. eliminated Internet connections as well.
As it's being constructed, yes, we see that there are.... I'm thinking of local examples, where the Internet implementation jumps from community to community as they're doing consultation. With the universal broadband fund, while we were happy that the intake was extended, but here are a few of the things that we're calling on the federal government to do right now.
We want to maximize the investment outcomes by ensuring effective coordination between the Internet service providers and the local government through FCM, and with provincial and territorial governments and federal departments and agencies.
We want to deliver on the commitment to expedite funding delivery. We want streamlined application processes and a one-window intake, especially for the smaller communities you're talking about. They need help. They need to have some support, because they just don't have the capacity.
Third, we're asking that we continue to measure and report on the progress and regularly reassess timelines and the level of public investment that's required.
This is urgent. We've got to get all Canadians connected.