Government committed to innovation, but unsure about broadband rollout

The federal government is being very cautious in its Innovation Strategy, but at least one observer likes the go-slow approach. Industry minister Allan Rock and Human Resources Development minister Jane Stewart released background papers in mid-February. The papers recount what progress Canada has made in the last few years, what goals must still be achieved, and what targets have been set for those goals. Neither the 92-page Industry Canada document nor the 56-page HRDC report put a price tag on those commitments, however. That doesn’t disturb the special advisor to Industry Canada on information technology. "One would always like those kinds of commitments but it is a white paper, it’s a discussion document," David Johnston tells Network Letter. "I think that’s the nature of the beast." Much of the Innovation Strategy revolves around education, particularly e-learning. The HRDC paper, Knowledge Matters: Skills and Learning for Canadians, sets objectives for future achievement. "Specific milestones for measuring progress toward this goal should include…all young Canadians are computer and Internet literate by grade school graduation," the document says. "The value of e-learning has been recognized in the report of the Advisory Committee for Online Learning. Its recommendations emphasize the need to enhance the quality of e-learning and improve access to it. Seizing this opportunity will require concerted action in the areas of technological investment, professional development and the diffusion of best practices." As with any governmental discussion in Canada, questions of jurisdiction arise. While the federal government is promoting academics, education is a provincial responsibility. Johnston, who is president of the University of Waterloo, hopes the usually bickering levels of government will put aside their differences for the common good. "I just think that that’s a subject that doesn’t divide up, nor should it divide up, into federal-provincial-municipal-school board-regional-local-village considerations," he states. "Any vision to cause the nation to be smarter and to invest in people and their ideas I think is appropriate for every level of government." The strategy heralds the advances made in programs like SchoolNet, CA*net 3, and the Smart Communities project. It also celebrates the way Canadian business has adopted new technology. Adoption of these technologies is helped by the country’s telecom infrastructure, the document continues. Canada has among the world’s lowest prices for basic telephony and Internet service. It also has high take-up rates for telecom products. The paper quotes the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development as saying Canada has the highest broadband penetration in the G-7 nations. Yet one glaring ambiguity in the report is the section on connectivity. Mixed messages continue to be sent. The National Broadband Task Force, which Johnston chaired, recommended rolling out backbone to every community by 2004. The Industry Canada document says only that high-speed should be "widely available" by 2005. In a speech in Toronto, Rock vowed that broadband will be available to all areas. "Yes, that language is a little bit different than the commitment to all communities, I agree," Johnston concedes. But he quickly cites the example of the SchoolNet program, one of the success stories referred to in both departmental papers. "We had an objective of connecting every school and every public library to the Internet by March 31, 1999," he recalls. "It was March 30, the day before the deadline that a little school with three students on a little island off Nova Scotia, I think it was Pictou Island, was connected."

Government committed to innovation, but unsure about broadband rollout

News | February 26, 2002

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