Digital Inclusion

‘Internet for Everyone’ campaign launched in Canada

By Jianggan Li | 10 October 2008

Telecommunities Canada (TC), a national coalition of groups that promote and support community technology initiatives, has launched the “Internet for Everyone” campaign that seeks to put a national ICT strategy back on the federal agenda.

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Garth Graham, internet strategist and member of the TC board of directors, says that none of the political parties are treating the absence of a national strategy of using the internet for development as an issue.

As part of any such national strategy, the primary concern of TC members, community-based practitioners who are supporting this campaign, will be the question of digital inclusion.

Recently Canada, once leading in providing internet access, went down from 2nd to 10th place on the list of connected nations, according to a study by OECD.

Only 26.6 per cent of the population is now connected to broadband network.

Federally supported digital inclusion programmes have been facing diminishing financial support over the past five years. That includes the Community Access Programme (CAP) and its companion Youth Initiative Programme (CAP-YI) – the backbone of a national network of community technology centres that bring new technologies into lives of millions of people.

Despite the budget cuts, they remain dynamic centres in local communities, with their young facilitators and volunteers. TC says this vibrancy is the proof of the need for and commitment of local organisations and volunteers.

These facilitators and volunteers provide job search and software training, technology literacy programmes, access to community services, and cultural integration opportunities at these sites. Along the way, thousands of CAP-YI trained youth gain experience that helps them move on in the world. Both internal and external evaluations of this programme have agreed that it has been a win-win relationship for years.

In addition to the attention on these programmes, there has been voices from both public and private sectors supporting the allocation of some of the spectrum auction proceeds toward a national ICT strategy.

‘Internet for Everyone’ campaign will be actively requesting electoral candidates to state their position on the above issues.