Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

We've made a proposal to both Canada and Ontario to do a project to close the cellular gaps in coverage and improve capacity. It has a value of $213 million. We've asked the federal government to join with the Province of Ontario and commit in budget 2019 to a contribution of $71 million over four years—$17.75 million a year for four years—as its share of the eastern Ontario regional mobile broadband project.

The Province of Ontario has committed $71 million to date. The Eastern Ontario Wardens' Caucus and the cities in eastern Ontario have committed $10 million as well. We'll raise another $61 million from the private sector, but we really need the federal government to join us in this key project.

It's about jobs and public safety. Our independent analysis has shown that if we do this project across eastern Ontario, we can create up to 3,000 jobs over the next number of years. Business revenues will be developed that will interest industry and telecommunications businesses to participate, and it's going to improve public safety as well. In many places, as the chair said, you can't get a cell connection at all. There are areas where you can go 100 kilometres and never be able to make contact with a cellphone. If you have an accident in that area, good luck. You'd better try to find a landline somewhere.

This project will set us up for the future too. We know that 5G is coming. Eastern Ontario needs to be ready to participate in that part of the economy. We can't do it without this key infrastructure in place. We need the support of Canada. We have Ontario's support. We'll raise a bunch of money from the private sector. This could be a really successful public-private partnership, as we had in the last project.

It has the support, I think it's fair to say, of all eastern Ontario MPs in the House of Commons. They have all written us support letters, urging the federal government to participate.

We're ready to get going. We just need the federal government to be onside with its contribution.

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