Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I want to thank my colleague and friend for that.
At the numerous round tables around the country, every time there is a similarity of connectivity, housing, workforce, immigration, but then at each one you pick up other points, which, to me, tell the whole story of the opportunities in rural Canada.
One thing that we did with the rapid response stream was we put in place a pathfinder process. That was a program where the communities, the small Internet service providers, the large Internet service providers, not-for-profits, indigenous groups could reach out and get information to help them, because one thing we heard loud and clear from rural communities is that sometimes they have one or two workers in their...paid employees in their community building.... Sometimes they don't even have that, frankly.
This pathfinder service was a real light to show us how we can do better. The pathfinder service had over 2,000 inquiries. They did online webinars to help communities and Internet service providers get their application into the rapid response stream.
We hear loud and clear that the capacity in rural areas isn't there for them to avail themselves of the numerous government programs that are out there. That's something we're considering: how we can help with capacity.
We have done plenty in rural Canada. Again, it's making sure the rural communities have the tools they need to access all these various programs from coast to coast to coast.
As I talked earlier with my colleague on housing, I've spoken with Minister Fraser on immigration on how we can apply that rural lens on getting people into rural communities. That's how we're going to grow our population. The infrastructure.... I remember a story years ago. I had a round table with some municipal leaders and they were saying, “Oh my golly, we were $10,000 short so we couldn't do one manhole.” That $10,000 meant more, or was as important, to the mayor of that small community than $10 million to a mayor.... We need to get the scope in place, too.
That's why I'm so proud of the work we do with the regional development associations, with the rural infrastructure fund, because that is small community buildings. That's the bridge in your hometown. That's the playground that you need to keep your community safe. That's the waste water and roads.
We have lots of programs. We need to just help communities get access to them better to have healthy, green, vibrant, growing communities, because that's where people are going to want to move to.