Mr. Speaker, hon. members' statements were quite interesting today. I could not help but think back to two conversations that I was engaged in over the last couple of weeks. The first conversation took place during a meeting I attended at which one of the speakers was talking about the information highway. The question from the group of people who were there came back: "What does that mean to me, I am still on a party line?"
In other words, what the person was saying was that our telephone system and the links that connect all of our homes in this country have not yet reached the technological level at which the benefits of an information highway can reach all Canadians.
Last week I visited one of the 22 Indian reserves in my constituency. On that reserve we were talking about the municipal infrastructure program and the ability of that program to fit a telephone system for the reserve. There are only three telephones on this reserve of 400 people. They cannot even call out their fire department. We talk about communications breakdown in this country. That community cannot even call out its fire department because it is not linked.
The municipal infrastructure program may not help with a communications infrastructure.
I am just wondering, to the hon. member who just spoke about the information highway and the growing technology that we are developing in this country, how we can apply the fairness of a good idea to all communities where our technology has not yet reached.