This exciting pilot project will introduce electronic commerce to small businesses, charities and social service non-profit organizations (NPOs), and consumers.

Small business in four rural communities will be trained to conduct their business transactions electronically over the Internet. Non-profit organizations will be able to receive donations and communicate with their clients.

We have chosen four Community Access Program (CAP) sites for the project so we can use our "connections" already established in the participating communities. The four pilot sites will be located in: North Okanagan; Lanark County, Ontario; Joliette, Quebec; and Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.

Consumers anywhere in Canada will be able to connect this virtual marketplace, to buy services and products ranging from insurance to fresh lobsters. They will also be able to make on-line contributions to any one of 60 Canadian non-profit organizations.

This project would not have been possible with out private sector partners, each bringing its expertise in the field of electronic commerce. I hope you will take the time to meet their representatives here: Touch Net Canada, Strategic Profits Inc., GE Capital Information Technology Solutions and the Royal Bank of Canada. Web Networks, Canada's only national non-profit Internet service provider is also a partner.

Later on this morning I will be addressing the delegates at the Canadian Library Association about our Connecting Canadians Agenda. This is our strategy to make Canada the most connected country in the world by the year 2000 - to make Canada the world leader in developing and using an advanced information infrastructure to meet the challenges of the global-knowledged based economy.

Our agenda has six elements: promoting access; growing digital content industries; putting government on line; encouraging smart communities; promoting a connected Canada to the world; and developing electronic commerce.

We view the move to electronic commerce as inevitable. If we move fast, if we remove the uncertainties holding back electronic commerce on open networks, we can create a global centre of excellence for electronic commerce. In short, with the right framework, electronic commerce has phenomenal growth prospects

But electronic commerce will only succeed if consumers are comfortable with the new technology and what it can do for them.

We are working on both the domestic and international fronts to address this issue.

Canada will host an OECD ministerial conference on electronic commerce, from October 7 to 9, 1998. At this ground-breaking event, governments and the private sector have the opportunity to establish a stable environment for global electronic commerce.

While governments can create the right framework, we are looking to consumers and industry to create the market and generate the growth.

Community Storefronts is a real live example of how we can work in partnership to explore and capture the opportunities of e-com.

It will show how Internet connections can mean increased opportunity for both the profit and non profit sectors across Canada. It will show how Canadian consumers will ultimately be able to benefit from secure access to an unprecedented range of products and services.

In just a few moments, we will have a demonstration of Storefronts in action. I'm not a great shopper myself, but this is one trip to the store that I'm really looking forward to.

Thank you.