Two per cent. That doesn’t seem like a lot does it? Ask residents of one local community who will be featured in an article in The Pilot next week over the petition they recently circulated to lobby for high speed Internet access. Is the fact that they are amongst the two per cent of households without anything other than dial-up Internet access okay with them? Do they and many other people in many communities throughout The Pilot coverage area feel like they are being left behind, even forgotten in the age of the Internet?
As the library representatives noted in the interview with The Pilot, they were never told that there was an end-date to this CAP funding. Consultation with communities would have told the Federal Government what areas still see this as essential funding. Instead of ending funding altogether, maybe there could have been an alternative to still offer services to that two per cent of Canadian households left without adequate or any broadband Internet access?
The reality is that even with access to broadband, many people still can’t afford it, or the computers and equipment required to access it. And if you can’t afford a computer, chances are you probably don’t have a smart phone handy either.
Access to the information superhighway is not just a luxury. It is vital and valued by all users, including that two per cent who may have to do without.
- Karen Wells
editor@pilotnl.ca
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