Industry committee  As we mentioned in our opening remarks, we're looking at the spectrum policy of the federal government. It obviously has an impact on rural deployment of the 700-megahertz spectrum. It will as well on the 2,500-megahertz spectrum when that happens. The TV white space spectrum, which I mentioned, also has application in smaller communities.

Industry committee  The final decision on the conditions and licence was just made by Industry Canada, but I'll go over our submission again. We felt that the rural deployment requirement, being based on the HSPA network and also applying only to carriers that have two or more paired blocks.... Industry Canada has been very clear on this.

Industry committee  It's not really necessary to link the auction with a policy to ensure rural broadband. But the government and the CRTC have all stated in the past that there's a role for public sector involvement in ensuring that where market forces aren't sufficient, there's rural deployment.

Industry committee  I don't, but we have provided the speaking notes to the clerk and we can make that available to members.

Industry committee  Good afternoon. Thank you for the opportunity to address the committee today. Our president, Karen Leibovici, from Edmonton, Alberta, sends her best wishes. As you know, FCM has been the national voice of municipal governments since 1901. We represent close to 2,000 municipalities, which in turn represent over 90% of Canada's population.