Mr. Speaker, the government believes that rural development needs to be a bottom up and not a top down driven process. The communities themselves must establish their priorities and establish the strategies to pursue community development.
The federal government acts as a means to provide a set of tools for these communities. I was pleased to announce, along with my colleague on May 25, the Canadian agricultural rural communities initiative which will provide $9.3 million to rural communities to assist them with community development. It is a great example of the bottom up approach to community development.