While the multiple 'digital divides' created by Canada's ineffective broadband policies are not new, the unevenly distributed challenges produced by COVID-19 are revealing the consequences of Canada's failure to close the gap. New research published in the Journal of Rural and Community Development by S. Ashleigh Weeden (University of Guelph) and Wayne Kelly Ray Silvius (Brandon University) highlights critical issues in Canadian rural broadband policy and investment programs and the way the pandemic has increased the urgency of addressing these issues.
In rural regions, in particular, the lack of universally accessible, affordable, and reliable high-speed broadband infrastructure means many people in rural Canada continue to face infrastructural barriers to maintaining essential social and economic activities while adhering to public health advice to limit physical contact with others. This research details critical policy failures in Canada’s approach to building digital capacity and the ways these failures augment pre-existing rural/urban disparities, leaving rural people and communities at particular social, economic, and public health disadvantages. In response, Weeden and Kelly propose a new ‘digital capital’ framework for ensuring investments in digital infrastructure are matched by investments in digital capacity.
Perhaps most crucially, this research underscores that Canada’s myopic focus on market stimuli to deliver solutions has failed to address the rural–urban digital divide and emphasizes that effective and equitable digital policy for rural Canada requires tailored, place-based approaches that encompass the complete process of developing digital capacity.
The full publication in the Journal of Rural Community Development entitled, ‘Canada's (Dis)connected Rural Broadband Polices: Dealing with the Digital Divide and Building 'Digital Capitals' to Address the Impacts of COVID-19 in Rural Canada’ [1], is available free online. The latest issue focuses on the impacts of COVID-19 on rural communities across Canada. In addition to this research contribution, Ashleigh Weeden also served as a guest editor for the special issue.
