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2017-04-04 11:48 House intervention / intervention en chambre

Broadband Internet services, Budget debates, Rural communities

Communautés rurales, Débats sur le budget, Services Internet à large bande

It is true, Madam Speaker. Had I stayed at the end of school in the town where I grew up and which I now represent, I would not have the career that I had. I found really interesting work, on contract, working on the Internet from 2000, for almost a decade, as an editor for an online high-tech news website. With all my education, all my experiences having been the same, had I stayed at home I simply could not have done that.

The economic opportunity loss for our youth in rural areas is very serious. The Internet file is the number one issue that people speak to me about in my riding. There are so many other issues that come up, but there are none that come up more often or more firmly than the lack of Internet access in our region.

When I toured the 43 municipalities in my riding, all 43 of them, every one of them, said that their number one priority in the community was Internet. A town of 400 people spent $100,000 of their municipal budget on getting Internet access when it had a boil water advisory in its small aqueduct downtown for more than 10 years.

If that does not tell members how important this file is for us, there is no way of expressing it well enough.

Madame la Présidente, c’est vrai: si j’étais resté après mes études dans la ville où j’ai grandi et que je représente maintenant, je n’aurais pas eu la carrière que j’ai eue. En 2000, j’ai trouvé un poste contractuel réellement intéressant où j’ai travaillé sur Internet pendant près d’une décennie comme rédacteur pour un site de nouvelles haute technologie. Avec tout mon bagage éducatif et professionnel, si j’étais resté dans ma ville, je n’aurais tout simplement pas pu faire cela.

L’absence de débouchés économiques pour les jeunes dans nos régions rurales est très grave. Le dossier Internet est la principale préoccupation que soulèvent les citoyens de ma circonscription quand je m’entretiens avec eux. Beaucoup d’autres questions sont également soulevées, mais aucune n’est mentionnée aussi souvent ni avec autant de conviction que l’absence d’Internet dans notre région.

Quand j’ai visité les 43 municipalités de ma circonscription, toutes sans exception m’ont dit que leur première priorité était Internet. Un village de 400 habitants a dépensé 100 000 $ de son budget municipal pour avoir accès à Internet alors qu’il y a un avis de faire bouillir l’eau provenant de la petite conduite d’eau du centre-ville depuis plus de 10 ans.

Si cela ne communique pas aux députés à quel point ce dossier est important pour nous, il n’y a pas moyen de l’exprimer plus éloquemment.

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Posted at 13:26 on April 04, 2017

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2017-04-04 11:46 House intervention / intervention en chambre | hansard parlchmbr tv |

2017-04-04 11:49 House intervention / intervention en chambre

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