I. Pourquoi financer l’équité numérique?
Alors que beaucoup considèrent la connectivité en ligne comme un droit humain essentiel, l’équité numérique est évidemment cruciale pour notre société, notre économie et notre démocratie. Cependant, l’inégalité numérique est devenue un grave problème dans des communautés d’un bout à l’autre du pays, car des millions de Canadiens n’ont même pas les éléments de base nécessaires pour se connecter. Les marchés et les gouvernements ont particulièrement laissé tomber les communautés du Nord, rurales et autochtones, ainsi que de nombreuses populations et communautés mal desservies où les infrastructures et les investissements ne se sont pas véritablement concrétisés.
L’équité numérique est la condition dans laquelle chacun dispose de capacités suffisantes en matière de technologies de l’information, soit la connectivité, les compétences et l’influence politique, pour participer pleinement et de manière significative à notre société, à notre démocratie et à notre économie.
Les avantages de l’équité numérique sont vastes et marqués, et peuvent être transformateurs à de nombreux niveaux. Voici quelques exemples de la façon dont cela peut avoir une incidence sur la vie quotidienne des Canadiens :
Réduction de la pauvreté et amélioration du niveau de vie grâce à l’accès à l’éducation, à l’emploi et à d’autres occasions.
Accès en ligne aux services de santé, ce qui mène à une meilleure santé physique et mentale.
Plus grande participation des ménages ruraux et éloignés à notre société, à notre économie et à notre démocratie.
Diminution de l’exploitation et des comportements prédateurs, et sécurité accrue pour les enfants, les jeunes et les adultes à risque.
Possibilité d’approfondir les liens entre les Canadiens dans de vastes régions géographiques.
Alors que les bailleurs de fonds peuvent considérer que la responsabilité de combler les lacunes en matière d’équité numérique incombe en grande partie au gouvernement ou à l’industrie, la philanthropie a un rôle à jouer pour faire progresser les répercussions sociales qu’elle souhaite entraîner, et de plus en plus de bailleurs de fonds perçoivent ces rôles.
Ce guide est destiné aux bailleurs de fonds pour qui l’équité numérique est un nouveau concept et à tous ceux et celles qui souhaitent comprendre pourquoi et comment apporter un financement à cet espace.
« Il faut que la philanthropie reconnaisse que si nous ne sommes pas attentifs à l’inégalité numérique, cela sapera notre capacité à atteindre bon nombre de nos objectifs collectifs en matière d’équité, de justice et de prospérité partagée. Si l’inégalité numérique continue d’être ignorée, les écarts se creuseront et nous passerons à côté de l’innovation, du savoir et des points de vue de nombreuses personnes. »
Responsable de l’innovation et de la croissance stratégique, Fondation Mastercard
« Pour nous à la Fondation Laidlaw, où nous nous préoccupons du racisme, de l’exclusion systémique, de l’accès et de l’équité, la fracture numérique crée de plus en plus de discrimination et de désavantages. Il faut y remédier. La fracture numérique freine les communautés et ralentit leurs progrès. En tant que bailleurs de fonds, nous devons nous assurer d’être conscients de l’équité numérique et y porter une attention particulière. Cela doit devenir une lentille à travers laquelle nous évaluons tout. »
Directeur général, Fondation Laidlaw
There are three priorities:
A. Community connectivity
B. Community capacity
C. Community policy advocacy
A. Community connectivity
Imagine a world without consistent access to digital resources. For many this decreases their ability to fully engage with the world around them. That’s why focusing on accelerating digital solutions reach, impact and transformation is paramount for greater inclusion and participation. With respect to our RBC programs, this focus allows for greater access to what we’re delivering to those who need it most.
Vice President of Social Impact and Innovation, RBC
Digital equity starts with infrastructure and connectivity support at a community level, so that everyone can access the same opportunities. In turn, social impact programming, including e-platforms and virtual services, relies on decent internet access. Rural and northern regions, Indigenous communities and low-income communities in urban areas are underserved or unconnected because of the cost for telecommunication companies—and government funding hasn’t filled the gaps. Many communities have been left to figure out their own solutions. To their credit, communities are coming up with options. The role of philanthropy includes supporting such efforts.
Half of rural households in Canada don’t have access to “basic” speed targets of 50 Mbps download and 10 Mbps upload set by the CRTC, Canada’s communications regulator, in 2016. On top of that, residents in Canada’s north pay up to $1,000 a month for the slowest internet in the country.
Community connectivity initiatives you can fund
Community and regional consultations to understand connectivity options, especially when they’re part of social programs, land claim groups, etc.
Network planning grants and support for communities to write proposals for government funding.
Community engagement on how to develop service-delivery opportunities related to environmental campaigns, healthcare networks, business hubs, etc.
Planning and support for citizens in communities to develop skills to maintain infrastructure and related services over the long term.
Match funding contributions required as a part of many provincial and federal infrastructure funding programs, such as the Government of Canada’s Universal Broadband Fund.
New, community-led models and approaches to programs involving digital equity.
Peer networks of local connectivity providers to share lessons learned and exchange skills and expertise on approaches.
One example of this is a CIRA-funded project called Connected Coastal Nations: Leveraging our Collective Impact for Indigenous Economies & Community Wellbeing. The project leverages federal and provincial funding to support community-owned internet service providers (ISPs) to deliver high-speed internet and increase network performance among Coastal Nations to reach a basic, universal standard of 50/10 Mbps. CIRA’s funds were used for community network sustainability planning and to match-fund provincial contributions for technical upgrades.
Other examples of community connectivity
As part of its Healthy Communities Initiative (a federally funded program), Community Foundations of Canada (CFC), an organization for Canada’s nearly 200 local community foundations, includes specific funding for digital solutions in small communities, such as:
- Supporting local economic development by funding free WiFi in a museum in Gananoque, ON, for tourists, youth and others who benefit from internet access. It’s easy to envision similar digital equity projects in a community, business or arts hub where residents, small businesses, non-profit groups, youth and others benefit.
- Lending WiFi-enabled tablets in internet hotspots in Mackenzie, a town of 3,000 people in central BC that doesn’t have reliable internet access. Similar projects in other remote communities would increase access to education, employment, health services and a whole lot more.
Connect Humanity, a new non-profit group that invests in connectivity providers globally, has been building on the work of the Indigenous Connectivity Summit. It supports skills-building in Indigenous communities by funding Tribal Wireless Bootcamps, in which people learn to build, maintain and troubleshoot wireless networks. The bootcamps are organized by leaders with a long history of supporting nontraditional broadband networks.
B. Community capacity
Digital equity includes supporting community capacity to assess needs for infrastructure, skills and digital policies within your specific sector or program. Furthermore, while offering essential social supports, this funding addresses new, online social problems: harassment, misinformation, voting manipulation, online scams and social media violence.
We learned a lot from providing digital resources in the early days of the pandemic, and it has now become embedded as part of our longer-term strategy… The big insight was that this wasn’t a short-term solution to the pandemic. So, creating a digital presence in the philanthropic space for both funders and also the community organizations that we serve, seems to be emerging as a long-term play.
Assistant Vice President of Programs & Operations, Canadian Tire Jumpstart Charities
Community capacity initiatives you can fund
Develop skills and amplify voices of youth, racialized and Indigenous Canadians, older adults, low-income people and at-risk communities.
Combat misinformation and stigma in specific sectors or internet-wide.
Raise awareness about cybersecurity threats, privacy, digital policy, data governance and algorithms related to how they shape access to information, rights and equality.
Develop digital skills curriculums in schools and for life-long learning.
Create or support a group devoted to digital skills and literacy in your sector or program.
CIRA funded an intergenerational, digital literacy training program for Elders in Nunavut, delivered by Indigenous youth in seven Kivalliq communities, using a learning framework specific to northern and Inuit culture. The program will simultaneously employ Inuit youth, strengthen community relations and preserve culture and language.
Other examples of community capacity
- Digital upskilling training at a community employment centre in Jasper, AB, supported by CFC’s Healthy Communities Initiative.
- Workshops to address PEI youth cybersafety concerns, with auxiliary sessions for parents and teachers to support their children online.
- Curriculum to educate and empower young people with sight loss to access the internet and participate in online community spaces safely and equitably.
- Digital skills training to empower entrepreneurs, youth and seniors in rural communities within S’ólh Téméxw and Chilliwack, BC.
C. Community policy advocacy
Digital equity involves addressing systemic issues and supporting communities that are trying to influence policy-making processes. Affordability, online harms, regulation of telecom operators, national broadband strategy and many other issues are tipped in favour of industry influence over communities. For example, the government has offered billions of dollars to ISPs to expand rural broadband access. Even though the expansion hasn’t happened quickly enough, these same ISPs regularly influence government policy, while communities and not-for-profits have relatively little representation.1 The Government doesn’t fund advocacy efforts that demonstrate how inconsistent and inequitable internet access is in Canada, so this sort of policy advocacy support needs to come from elsewhere.
1For details, please refer to CIRA’s “Unconnected: Funding Shortfalls, Policy Imbalances and How They Are Contributing to Canada’s Digital Underdevelopment” (stg.cira.ca/unconnected) and “Getting Connected: Funders and Digital Equity in Canada.” (stg.cira.ca/getting-connected)
There is a lot of policy and advocacy and mandate work that has to happen with the investors themselves, to get them to realize that digital is not only a nice-to-have thing. We live in a digital age, and the people who we support are decades behind. There’s a big-picture advocacy piece that has to happen within the philanthropic world… We can’t do it one organization at a time, it’s not going to work. We have to do both. We have to invest in the individual organizations, and we have to invest in the broader ecosystem of support.
Partnership Development Lead, Ontario Trillium Foundation
Community policy advocacy initiatives you can fund
Develop or support a coalition or ecosystem of groups working on issues like access and affordability.
Fund civil society participation in government hearings and consultations related to legislative reform.
Package and present existing research and raise awareness among decision makers.
Counter concentrations of power, monopoly issues and data trusts.
Support spectrum sovereignty. As with natural resources, such as trees and minerals, “spectrum” is a critical resource for Indigenous communities, and “spectrum sovereignty” means that Indigenous communities have first rights to the digital spectrum over their lands.
CIRA supported a research report, created by ACORN Institute Canada, a grassroots advocacy organization. Barriers to Digital Equity in Canada is about the lack of affordable internet access in low-income communities. The report connected policymakers with the lived experience of low-income communities, provided excellent leadership-development training and amplified the voices of marginalized community members.
Other examples of community policy advocacy
- The Canadian Internet Governance Forum (CIGF) is Canada’s leading multi-stakeholder forum on digital and internet policy issues, bringing together voices from government, academia, civil society and the private sector. CIGF is the space for Canadians to discuss issues like connectivity, competition, privacy, cybersecurity and mis- and disinformation.
- The Ottawa Neighbourhood Equity Index is a tool to help identify disparities, including digital inequity, between neighbourhoods and to tackle them in an organized way. In addition, Ottawa’s National Capital Freenet and other partners developed digital equity mapping and an advocacy strategy.
- The First Nations Technology Council is co-creating a Digital Equity Roadmap for all First Nations in BC to mobilize communities to achieve digital equity in six areas: connectivity and infrastructure; policy and legislation; skills development; employment and business development; tech and innovation leadership; and governance and self-determination.
- Established in 2017, the Indigenous Connectivity Summit (ICS) is an annual forum for discussing the unique connectivity challenges faced by Indigenous communities in Canada and the US. Topics discussed at the ICS include trends in technology, applications and policy, as well as community success stories.
