Merci, Monsieur le President. And I'm going to spring this on the Minister of Finance unfortunately, but there was a audit report just released by the Auditor General of Canada connecting connectivity in rural and remote areas. There's quite a bit of discussion, Mr. Speaker, in this report about unspent funds. I thought our government was bad getting money out the door but this is actually quite shocking in terms of supporting internet connectivity in rural and remote communities. You know, for example, the broadband fund, only 26 percent of the money budgeted was expended. Low earth or orbit to capacity agreement, zero percent. Connecting Canadians, 88 percent, a little bit better. But only 40 percent of the money was actually expended to help connect rural and remote communities, Mr. Speaker. What is our government doing to fix this problem? Thanks, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Minister responsible for Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would love to see the federal government spend its money better and spend its money in the Northwest Territories. That would be a good news story for all. I can say that the universal broadband funds including their rapid universal broadband fund, which I think I've got slightly misstitled, were not necessarily well tuned to some of the needs here in the Northwest Territories. An example being redundancy was not eligible for any funding through those funds. And redundancy in the Northwest Territories, of course when we have one line going into communities, one line going across the Northwest Territories, that actually is a big part of ensuring accessibility and availability because if one line goes down, it costs us millions; it costs businesses millions. That was not available for funding. We did get funding through the fund, and the Indigenous governments, Tlicho government got funding through the fund, and funding up to the the InuvikTuk Highway was funded through that fund. So while I had received only some initial data back on this fairly new report, I'd be interested to see how we've done perhaps in comparison and to see if there were areas that we could have looked for more that we could go back now and look for more.
And one last, Mr. Speaker, I think they have actually gone out now and asked for recommendations and responses with respect to how to improve those funds and, Mr. Speaker, I can tell you that I have already checked with our department; we are planning to put our submission in on that regard. Thank you.
Merci, Monsieur le President. And, of course, I didn't give the Minister a heads up so I'm springing this on her, probably playing a little bit of this just off the cuff. But, you know, some of the recommendations in this report are aimed, of course, at one of my favorite agencies, the Canadian RadioTelevision Telecommunications Commission. And, you know, recommendation 2.31, the CRTC should routinely collect and verify data from telecommunication service providers about connectivity quality. Like, I would have thought that that's something you would just normally do.
In any event, Mr. Speaker, would the Minister commit to provide a briefing note to Regular MLAs about what our government is doing in response to this report from the auditor general? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, Mr. Speaker, I would be happy to provide a briefing, a briefing note or briefing in person with respect to, you know, monies we've had, challenges, perhaps opportunities to come, and what we might be doing to look for more money. Mr. Speaker, it's, again, certainly been my position, and I've communicated to federal ministers, that some of the funds perhaps weren't best tuned or well tuned to what the needs actually are and to where we are at in terms particularly around, again not only accessibility and availability, but affordability. That was not necessarily well tuned in terms of those funds, in terms of improving affordability here in the North. So, again, happy to explain where we're at so that all sides of the House can continue to advocate for residents. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
