Industry committee  Thank you. Good morning. I'd like to begin by thanking the standing committee for the invitation to participate in your study on broadband connectivity. My name is Ray Orb, and I am the chair of the rural forum at the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and also president

Industry committee  I can take the first crack at that, and if Sara has a comment, she can answer as well. I think there needs to be some flexibility in how that's delivered. I know that in some provinces it may be delivered in other ways. Alberta has some unique ways. They're working in partnershi

Industry committee  Our approach to FCM is that it's important to have a three-way partnership of the federal government, the provincial government, and the municipalities. Taking advice from members like you is where we want to be on this issue.

Industry committee  We're seeing this, and we know that in Alberta in some cases the municipalities are working on that. There are as many as 80 municipalities, I believe, in one area that have grouped together. We could get that information to you, Mr. Bossio. I think they're doing some partnering.

Industry committee  If I can answer that, Mr. Bernier, I think that our members in the rural area would be open to towers. We're in areas where the population is quite sparse and we don't have too much infrastructure, so a tower is actually welcome. We have towers now, but they're really few and far

Industry committee  You're referring to the download speed, the megabits per second?

Industry committee  We're in favour of that. We believe that all Canadians should have a minimum amount of download capacity as well as a minimum of upload capacity. We believe it's a step in the right direction. We believe they need to spread out that coverage throughout the rural and remote areas

Industry committee  Yes, we can. I would say that the problems with coverage are even more exaggerated in northern Canada, so I'll let Sara answer first, if you don't mind, and then I'll answer as well.

Industry committee  I think the CRTC has done a fairly good job of creating maps. If you go to their website, you can see the areas in every province where there's a lack of high-speed coverage. Those maps are, I would say, at a higher level than maybe what we'd like, because we know that in our own

Industry committee  It has a very negative affect on economic development. We know that there are a lot of businesses that would like to move out of some of the larger urban centres and get out to rural areas. It probably makes sense for some of them, because that's where their roots are and that's

Industry committee  I know that in Saskatchewan, SaskTel would like to take all the money from Connecting Canadians. They said they could use it all in rural Saskatchewan. That gives you an idea of the complexity of this issue.

Industry committee  They think it will. They're doing a better job now, but there's a big part of this country that needs the same kind of coverage.

Industry committee  As I stated, these programs are really helping rural Canadians, but it's a work in progress because we have to partner with our provinces, our municipal organizations, and the industry as well. The industry, I think, is starting to pay attention. They see that this is heading in

Industry committee  Sorry. I missed the last part.

Industry committee  A right? I think FCM believes it's probably a privilege for all Canadians to be able to be able to be connected. We're asking for basic high-speed Internet coverage, so if it's a right, that would mean that we would have to be able to have access to it. In a sense, I think peopl