Thank you, Chair.
Thank you to our guests, Auditor General Hogan and Mr. Hannoush.
I want to thank the Office of the Auditor General of Canada for their report on rural and remote connectivity. We appreciate the recommendations and really look forward to continuing the government's work on broadband. We're on our way, well on our way, to surpassing our goal of connecting 98% of Canadians to high-speed Internet by 2026 and 100% of Canadians by 2030.
We heard some numbers earlier. In 2014, I believe it was, only 79% of households had access to high-speed Internet. In Kitchener—Conestoga today, 89.5% of homes have access. That includes a strong agriculture sector. It's something that I think Canadians should be proud of. I talk to people in small communities like Crosshill, Dorking, Hawkesville, Heidelberg, Linwood, Millbank, St. Clements, New Hamburg and Wellesley. These are small communities, and they've received funding to expand high-speed Internet coverage.
Most of these projects are scalable projects for future needs, which is closing the digital divide between urban and rural communities. Earlier we heard about the importance of scalability. Most of these new projects, 80%, are scalable. As I explain it to my constituents, if you're going to be building a road, you leave room for extra lanes. That's what about 80% of these projects are doing for future growth.
We know that there's more to do and we remain committed to doing that work. That's why I think it's important that you're here. Your report is so important. The governments of Canada and Ontario, not that long ago, announced funding of almost $12 million for broadband infrastructure in the Waterloo region, which connects thousands of homes and businesses, mostly in my riding of Kitchener—Conestoga.
The federal government signed partnerships with, I believe, six of the provincial governments, Ontario being one of them. Can you tell us what your assessment is of the effectiveness of these partnerships and how they're helping the government achieve its national connectivity goals? What lessons can your report share about the importance of putting partisanship aside and coordinating and working across party lines and across jurisdictional lines for the common goal of helping our rural communities?