Finance committee  Sorry, I'm on “off”.

Finance committee  All right. As the minister indicated, we have already received more than 5,000 offers from businesses...

Finance committee  I do not have that handy, but I'll come back with that as well.

Finance committee  Mr. Chair, I don't have that number immediately available, but I'll see if I can get it for the committee as quickly as possible.

Industry committee  I could again maybe turn to Éric Dagenais to get into the technical detail. However, when the new program opens, which I think ministers have indicated they will be wanting to move forward quickly, we're going to see very rapidly what kinds of proposals come in and what kind of financing capability the various parties can bring to the table.

Industry committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm so sorry. I missed the front end of the question. I think there was a question about the use of passive infrastructure.

Industry committee  That is something we're very alive to. I think Janet Yale's panel mentioned this as an issue. That was the panel that came out maybe two months ago. Certainly you want to take advantage where you can of passive infrastructure, because that's an efficient way to make sure you can make broadband available.

Industry committee  The first thing is that we want to make sure that when the program is up and running, we go as quickly as possible. An aim will be to try to roll out the new funding under the universal broadband program as rapidly as we can. That's certainly a priority. In terms of the existing network, there's a lot of work that telcos are doing to expand the availability of their networks, to add additional capacity so it can hold up to the traffic.

Industry committee  Sure.

Industry committee  Maybe Éric Dagenais' microphone could be turned on just to talk a little about how we work with the telcos to ensure that we get built out into rural areas. I don't know if Éric is available on the line.

Industry committee  That's a decision that has to be made as we look at the proposals that come in—project by project—to make sure they can meet that specification. There may be some where it's going to be fibre optic. There may be some where it will be fixed wireless. It will depend on the project.

Industry committee  Thank you for the question. As a public servant, I certainly think it would depend very much on the program you're referring to. Typically, on broadband programming, for example, you would have a definition of whether something is urban, ex-urban or rural, but that may well differ depending on whether it's another government program in another ministry.

Industry committee  Yes, I'm ready to answer questions. The share of private sector investment depends on the project. For the private sector, it is more difficult to invest in some projects because communities are remote from their network, among other things. I can say, however, that the ratio for the most recent program, Connect to Innovate, is about one to one, one dollar from the private sector and one dollar from the government.

Government Operations committee  The specific health guidance around whether to hand out masks broadly to the population, their use, and so on, would be from the health ministry, but we are certainly aware of the need for surgical masks, as well as N95 respirators and other kinds of face coverings. That is a focus for us on the industrial, made-in-Canada approach.

Government Operations committee  As I said, we're working very hard to try to respond to every company that has written to us or has contacted us. We have a network of advisers across the country that are doing that. On Buyandsell, I can't speak for my colleagues. That question would have to be directed to the Public Services and Procurement ministry, but I know they're working very hard, too, to reach out to people who have contacted them.