Government holds more than 20 meetings, will make digital strategy announcement in ‘coming weeks’

Canada’s most powerful lobby group for the information and communications technology (ICT) sector reported 21 meetings between January and November 2009 with top federal officials and cabinet ministers who were laying the groundwork for a national digital strategy. The sessions with representatives from the Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC) included a meeting last May with Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Industry Minister Tony Clement—possibly signalling the importance the government is attaching to the wide-reaching plan the Conservatives have promised but so far failed to deliver. But with the country’s largest telephone and cable companies among the 1,300-plus firms that make up ITAC, the lobbying sessions prompted questions about the wisdom of extensive government consultations with such a powerful group of stakeholders behind closed doors. Tom Copeland, chair of the Canadian Association of Internet Providers (CAIP), noted that the business interests of influential ITAC members like Bell Canada and its divisions, Cogeco Cable Inc., and Rogers Cable and Rogers Wireless, compete with the business interests of other companies and sectors that have a stake in the digital strategy, as well as the interests of consumers. “Their interests are competing with the independent providers, like myself and other CAIP providers,” Copeland told The Wire Report. Players outside ITAC have no way of knowing whose interests are front and centre during the private sessions with the government. “From my perspective, what organizations like ITAC sometimes fall prey to is that their large members can at times direct their policy, or influence their policy, so that the broad scope they may wish to target is watered down, depending on the needs of the few rather than the needs of the many,” Copeland said. “I’m not suggesting that’s what happens with ITAC. It can happen with any industry association, especially the ones that pay very large membership dues,” he added. Despite the government’s numerous meetings on the issue, it failed to unveil a plan or any related government funding to develop a national digital strategy in its 2010 budget, released last week. The failure to deliver a plan in the budget appeared to disappoint ITAC. The budget “offered no details or provisions for the strategy, or any new information about when the strategy would be unveiled,” ITAC said in a statement after Finance Minister James Flaherty tabled the budget in the House of Commons. “The government has been careful in recent weeks to set no expectations of new funding initiatives and a great deal of the budget focused on the roll-out of two year programs announced last year.” Lynda Leonard, ITAC’s senior vice-president, told The Wire Report that “we’re anxiously waiting” for the release of the strategy. Lynn Meahan, Clement’s press secretary, declined to disclose when the government intends to release the strategy or what it will entail. The issues to be addressed have been known for months, including broadband access, copyright and foreign ownership. But Meahan suggested the strategy will not include additional federal funding for the development of ICTs. “There was no specific funding announced in the Budget for the Digital Economy Strategy, but further details on the contents and scope of the strategy will be announced in the coming weeks,” she said in an email response to questions. ITAC lobbyists also discussed the digital economy and the impact of ICT on the economy with former Treasury Board president Vic Toews (now the minister of public safety); senior departmental officials; officials from Harper’s office; Helen McDonald, the deputy minister in charge of Industry Canada’s spectrum branch; Diane Finley, minister of human resources and skills development; and Diane Ablonczy, former minister of state for small business. Google Canada, which has a stake in expected Internet and information technology copyright measures that will be a key part of the strategy, reported eight lobbying meetings with government officials, including Clement, since last September. Those reports did not identify the digital economy strategy specifically, but cited intellectual property among the subjects discussed. Leonard and other leaders in the sector reiterated the need for Canada to launch a co-ordinated plan to develop the strategy quickly. She and other sector officials pointed out the country has fallen back from its leading position in the area a decade ago. “Canadian business invests about 60 per cent of what US business invests per work in ICT,” she said. “That’s having an impact on productivity, that’s having an impact on our ability to innovate as business people.” ITAC reported more than a dozen other lobbying meetings with federal officials about government procurement and other issues. Copeland said it may be time for a broader inquiry into all aspects of the digital economy, involving parliamentarians of all stripes, as well as citizens. “It’s maybe time for a national task force of politicians and the private and public sector, and public being truly the public, the consumer, to do some visioning and decide where we want to be, and might be, in five, 10 or 15 years,” he said. Kevin Tuer, managing director of the Canadian Digital Media Network, which is establishing a nationwide string of “commercialization centres” for digital research and development across the country, said the involvement of all stakeholders in the sector is key to develop a digital economy where “anyone can do anything online in Canada by 2017.” “We’ve already got tremendous capacity and capability,” Tuer said. “I think it’s now about aggregating and bringing all of that together.” news@thewirereport.ca

Government holds more than 20 meetings, will make digital strategy announcement in ‘coming weeks’

News | 03/10/2010 8:05 pm EST

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