Two-tiered access to government services, to education, to health care and to business opportunties exists in Manitoba due to NDP delay on broadband

More than 200 Manitoba communities are not connected with broadband access to the internet due to delays and inaction by the NDP government. The NDP have been in power for more than ten years, which is plenty of time to have connected all communties in Manitoba to broadband access.

The result of NDP delays is that we now have a two-tiered system of access to government services, to education , to health care information and to economic opportunities, with many Manitobans being left out.

Because delivery of on-line government services requires downloads of pdf documents, graphics and adequate access to educational and health material and economic opportunities requires on-line access to videos and other material with large files, many Manitobans are being left behind.

The result of poor access to the latest information in education is we have students not doing as well as they should be, or even dropping out and losing major opportunities for themselves. Communities without broadband access tend to have lower graduation rates and their young people then fall further behind. Communities without broadband access have less access to critical health information and their health status is affected. Communities without broadband access have fewer opportunties to start businesses and participate in activities with economic potential so the communities as a whole fall further behind instead of catching up.

We need to reverse this downward spiral which has resulted from the NDP's inaction. Today, in question period I asked the government why it has let this slip so badly? Of course, Greg Selinger talked about all his future plans. But the reality is, in Manitoba today, after more than ten years of the NDP we are behind and it is hurting people in communities which are still not connected through broadband. We need to move forward as quickly as possible.