Mr. Speaker, the government committed in the Speech from the Throne to making Canada the most connected nation in the world. It entails a very direct, active and aggressive campaign to ensure that Canadians in rural and remote communities are able to have access to the modern information technology and telecommunications systems that are available.
Through the community access program we have established the objective of connecting 5,000 rural and remote communities by the year 2000. We are about half way there now.
Communities in every region of Canada are experiencing the advantages both for social as well as for economic reasons of having direct access to the new technologies.