Madam Speaker, on behalf of all of us in the House, I would like to take this minute on International Women's Day to thank you for your leadership and support and wish you and all my female colleagues all the best. I am sure I can speak for all of us in the House on that.
I am delighted to stand and chat about our government's progress in improving connectivity for all Canadians and for the member for Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes. As we know and as the member opposite says, and I agree with him, high-speed Internet accessibility is essential for all Canadians, no matter where they live from coast to coast to coast.
I agree with him as well that the COVID-19 pandemic has further highlighted the importance of connectivity and has accelerated the need to connect all Canadians, and I am delighted to tell him that we are on track to meet our goals of connecting 98% of homes with high-speed Internet by 2026 and 100% of Canadians by the year 2030, years earlier than previously thought.
Our connectivity strategy, and we do have a connectivity strategy, includes several coordinated initiatives, including the Connect to Innovate fund and the universal broadband fund. By the end of the Connect to Innovate program in 2023, nearly 400,000 households will have the potential to benefit from improved Internet access. Over the last month alone, we have announced over 11 communities in Quebec that have benefited from investments, and they are now connected to high-speed Internet.
The $1.75-billion universal broadband fund, the UBF, is the program that Canadians asked us for. It was enhanced and scaled up to meet the challenges that everyone is facing. It was designed with partners, with colleagues, with small businesses, with farmers and with experts to ensure that it is flexible and addresses the needs of all communities all across the country, whether it is through mobile connections, fibre connections or satellite connections. It includes tools and services to help better plan projects and, more importantly, to track the impact while addressing challenges that can happen to delay progress, because we all know Canada is a wild and wonderful country.
The UBF is going to be used to fund broadband infrastructure projects that will provide rural and remote communities with access to high-speed Internet services to connect with loved ones, use virtual health care services—as the member opposite referred to, which is huge in my riding—manage a farm, help with children's homework, or, frankly, just stay connected. It is going to support the required network infrastructure, whether backbone or last mile, to better meet the geographical needs and regional connectivity needs throughout the country.
I am pleased to say that we have begun announcing projects under the rapid response stream. These projects are going to connect households in November of this year. Earlier this year the Minister of Rural Economic Development announced $6.7 million to connect 1,977 homes in communities in rural B.C. They were in Pemberton, Steelhead, Ryder Lake, northwest of Princeton and the north Sunshine Coast. In Starland County and Stettler County in Alberta, 7,179 underserved households are going to be connected, and northeast of Sudbury, 74 underserved households will be connected, including 68 indigenous households.
Furthermore, 190 households in the Perth—Wellington region and 120 households in the Niagara region will be connected and there will be more coming soon. These are exactly the types of projects this stream was intended for and intended to fund: small local projects that will make an immediate impact.
We know there is so much more to do, but we have a strategy and a plan to make sure that every Canadian will be connected.