Mr. Speaker, I would like to comment today on recent announcements made by the Government of Canada to support high speed Internet services for remote northern communities.

The announcement of $155 million available under a national satellite initiative is welcome news for the Northwest Territories, as 16 of our 33 communities rely on satellite service. This announcement demonstrates that the Government of Canada is listening to our concerns and are working to address the needs for infrastructure, in this case technology infrastructure and satellite capacity.

We have been working with the Government of Canada and the Communications Research Centre in Ottawa to find creative ways to address the high cost of delivering service to residents across the territory, especially in satellite-served communities where the infrastructure and the ongoing cost of satellite space is high. Earlier this year we received some public benefit satellite capacity from Industry Canada and deployed it to schools, libraries and Aurora College campuses and learning centres.

I believe our ongoing work in educating Ottawa about the challenges we face and the missed opportunities resulting from lack of affordable, high-speed service in all communities is helping to spur development of federal programs to address our needs in this area.

Mr. Speaker, although we do not have any specific details of this program, we are pleased to see that it could address both infrastructure and satellite capacity. We in the Northwest Territories know that it is not always possible to take advantage of new opportunity if infrastructure is limited and it is difficult to move forward if the costs are excessive.

We will be encouraging the federal government to provide us with program details as soon as possible. We expect the Northwest Territories groups participating in the broadband for rural and northern development, or BRAND, program will be equally interested in this new program as it is intended to complement the $105 million announced earlier for BRAND.

Mr. Speaker, investments in community infrastructure are needed in the Northwest Territories. We look forward to hearing more about the opportunities the national satellite initiative offers for the NWT. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause