Mahsi, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I would like to talk about communications today. In this modern era today, we enjoy using telephones and cordless phones, and you can talk to anybody in any place in this world today, Madam Speaker. However, there are some of my constituents who are still in the dark ages in communication. These are the smaller communities that I have talked about before in the House. I would like to say again that these people have been in need of better telecommunications in the small communities of Jean Marie River, Nahanni Butte and Trout Lake. They only have one telephone which is a pay phone and it is on the FM channel, so there is a public poster in the community that says if you use the telephone, don't talk about anything personal or medical because there might be someone in the community who has you tuned in and will listen to everything that goes on in your conversation. So even though they have a telephone, it isn't a very private way of communicating. So they have very limited use of the telephone and it is very inconvenient.
There are people in the communities who have requested to have phones in their own homes. However, that isn't possible with the technology that is available to them in the smaller communities. There are band and community offices, schools and teachers who require better communications. They don't have the convenience of faxes available to them either.
Just the other day, the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment made an announcement about distance education that is available to people who have the technology. But this limits the people in these communities from not acquiring these services from the department. The communities, when they first got their telephone, modified it so they could use a cordless telephone. Madam Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement. Mahsi.