Canadian Heritage committee  In terms of the remaining gap, I think it remains a given that the last 2% is the hardest to reach. It's always been that way. It was the way with the traditional telephone system. It's the most challenging geography and the least dense population, so that even with a subsidy, the business case remains problematic.

Canadian Heritage committee  Last year's official statistic, which just came out from CRTC, was 95%. We're working towards closing that to 98% by 2012.

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes. That was the data collection period.

Canadian Heritage committee  In response, could I clarify your question? I'm not precisely sure what you mean by “different approaches”.

Canadian Heritage committee  I would like to say that I think we all have common objectives. Common objectives are promoting innovation, competition, and investment. Concerning the particular case that you've just mentioned, I think that the Prime Minister has said that this decision on usage-based billing is going to be reviewed, so I'm not at liberty to speak much further about it.

Canadian Heritage committee  It's an excellent question. I think the response is that the strategy is in progress and that there is a consultation on the digital economy strategy. A wide range of views have been expressed through various forms of online consultations and submissions. The minister made an interim report in November, and I mentioned the five different aspects.

Canadian Heritage committee  We have a consultation on this that was launched at the end of November. The consultation period will close at the end of February. It's a wide-ranging consultation. We are asking wide-ranging questions about the state of competition in Canada in the wireless sector and about types of government intervention, such as whether it would be to support rural and remote or whether it would be to support competition for innovation.

Canadian Heritage committee  We regard 1.5 megabits as the minimum, and we have some good progress to report. According to the CRTC, at the end of December about 82% of Canadian households had access to five megabits. I think we're already at a good standard. We have done that mainly through private sector investment and pretty minimal government investment.

Canadian Heritage committee  You were suggesting that wireless be considered as a....

Canadian Heritage committee  In terms of the provision, I think you have to distinguish between carriage and content. Telecom services are the carriage of the actual telecom signal. What is regulated under the Telecommunications Act is separate from what's regulated under the Broadcasting Act. The wireless service provided through the cellphone provider is considered a telecom service, because it basically uses the radio spectrum and does not touch the content; it simply provides the signal.

Canadian Heritage committee  Speaking for Industry Canada, I would point to the digital economy strategy, because I think our minister has really laid a very clear vision of where we see the priorities. There are five priority areas. The first is to have world-class infrastructure. Another is having business adopt ICTs, and I think this is really critical; we know that small businesses have had some challenges in fully utilizing ICTs to enhance productivity, so that's certainly a key area of focus for us.

Canadian Heritage committee  The question is with regard to the impact of changes in foreign ownership rules, including legislative and regulatory changes, on Canadian content and culture. In June of last year the government released a consultation paper inviting views on foreign investment in telecommunications and noting that foreign investment restrictions on broadcasting are not being considered.

Canadian Heritage committee  We will turn now to the fifth question: What could be done to ensure that all Canadians, no matter where they live or what their socio-economic status is, have access to emerging and digital media? The Government of Canada has adopted an approach that consists in enabling competition and encouraging private investment by companies while allowing market forces to prevail whenever possible.

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes, it's funded by government.

Canadian Heritage committee  There is a program to address that need, the Broadband Canada program. There are already 220,000 households that will be served through that and there will be additional funding forthcoming through that. And that was the priority of the economic action plan.