Mr. Speaker, first, this is an area where we have a significant, even comfortable, lead over other countries.
A third of research and development is done in telecommunications and information. In this area, we are in a good position. There are, however, minor effects that are sometimes not mentioned in this House.
I recently visited a school for severely handicapped children where the children have access to the Internet. The children said “Because we are hooked up to the Internet, people do not know we are sick, they do not know we have problems. The world is at our fingertips”. This is one instance of what a bill such as this can do for us, if we have an information highway across the country.
Rural communities that sometimes lack services because of their remoteness and because of the cost will no longer be isolated.