The First Mile

Supported by the SSHRC-funded First Nations Innovation Project

Community Access Program (Industry Canada)

In the mid-1990s, Canada’s Community Access Program (CAP) program was used as a model for many member states in the European Union (Pacific Community Networks Association, 2006). Our key informants told us that CAP sites play an important role for many First Nations communities in B.C. that do not yet have widespread local-level broadband infrastructure and connectivity services, and the program is widely utilized among Inuit communities in the North.

However, while some European nations built upon the CAP model and incorporated it in nationally-oriented broadband strategies, “funding for CAP in Canada was reduced, government utilization of the infrastructure was limited, and the program lagged in adjusting its mission and evaluative criteria to the changing realities of ICT in Canadian society” (Pacific Community Networks Association, 2006, p. 10; see also Smith, 2008). In March 2010, funding cuts to CAP resulted in public outcry and (temporary) restoration of funding (Middleton, 2010, p.4).

A forthcoming history of the CAP program that is presently in draft form (Moll, forthcoming, 2011) notes how after 2007-2008, it no longer appeared in annual departmental performance reports filed by Industry Canada with Treasury Board. During 2009-2010, funds allocated for CAP came from the $225 million Broadband Canada: Connecting Rural Canadians program (discussed above), rather than from the Regional Operations branch budget (Moll, forthcoming, 2011). Rather than a fund to support ongoing connectivity services, Broadband Canada is linked to the federal government’s Economic Action Plan, which focused on infrastructure development projects. This shift to short-term funding became more apparent in March 2010, when CAP administrators across Canada began receiving letters advising them their funding would be terminated at the end of that month, unless their sites were located more than 25 km from a public library (Moll, forthcoming, 2011). The CAP community responded by contacting MPs and the media, and the issue was raised during Question Period by members of all three opposition parties in the House of Commons. According to Moll (forthcoming, 2011):

In a quick turn about, Industry Minister Tony Clement announced that there had been a bureaucratic misunderstanding and that the funding had never really been withdrawn. The program was good for another year but again funded through the temporary "Connecting Rural Canadians" infrastructure program (forthcoming, 2011).

Funding for the broadband infrastructure-focused Broadband Canada: Connecting Rural Canadians program is presently scheduled to end on March 31, 2011.