Mr. Speaker, the Government of Canada knows that access to high-speed Internet is essential for all Canadians, no matter where they live. That is why the government has made more than $7.6 billion available across government connectivity programs to support the building of rural and remote Internet infrastructure.
The Government of Canada’s most recent connectivity program, the universal broadband fund, or UBF, is the largest federal investment in broadband in Canada’s history. The UBF is providing $3.225 billion to help ensure that 98% of Canadians will have access to high-speed Internet by 2026 and all Canadians by 2030. The government is on track to meeting that goal. Today, 93.5% of Canadians have access to high-speed Internet or are targeted to receive access through program commitments, compared to 79% of Canadians in 2014.
With regard to the Hamilton metropolitan census area, 97.6% of dwellings currently have access to a service of 50/10 Mbps or higher.
On July 29, 2021, a federal-provincial co-funding agreement with Ontario was announced to bring high-speed Internet to nearly 280,000 rural Ontario households in hundreds of communities across the province. This agreement is being made possible by an equal federal-provincial investment totalling more than $1.2 billion. Projects under this agreement have already begun to be announced and can be viewed on the UBF’s selected projects page.
The Government of Ontario announced selected projects and communities from its reverse auction, which will connect another 266,000 underserved households in the province. The Government of Canada has worked closely with the Government of Ontario to ensure recent funding decisions are coordinated with decisions on the reverse auction.
The Government of Canada looks forward to making more core UBF announcements under the Canada-Ontario broadband partnership in the coming months.