1

By Lawrence Moule

Co-Editor, Municipal Interface

Rural communities across Canada without broad-

band access are in imminent danger of losing

businesses and economic opportunities, com-

munity leaders say.

Participants in a conference for community networks

at Kingston, Ontario, said broadband access has become

so vital that communities without it – by far the majority

of the number of communities in Canada – fear for

their survival.

They are hoping that a new federal government pilot

program announced in September will be a lifeline

for small and remote communities. The program’s

financial commitment, however, will only serve the

needs of a fraction of communities isolated without

broadband access.

“One of the greatest fears in rural communities is

that the train won’t stop here any more,” Brenda Wi l s o n ,

executive director of the Communities of Eastern Ontario

Network (CEONet), told Allan Anderson of Industry

Canada after his presentation describing the program.

“ We are really praying that you are the train.”

Industry Minister Allan Rock and Secretary of

State (Rural Development) Andy Mitchell launched

the $105-million Broadband for Rural and Northern

Development Pilot Program at Bracebridge, Ontario,

on September 5.

Leaders of community network organizations

anxiously sought details about the program’s application

requirements from Anderson and other Industry Canada

officials during the Broadband Community Networks

2002 Conference, October 21–23. The conference

was presented by the Ontario government and the

Kingston Area Network (Kannet).

Anderson, director of service delivery for the

Ontario region of Industry Canada, acknowledged to his

audience that the program will provide funds sufficient

to meet the start-up needs of only about 10 per cent of

communities without broadband access.

Industry Canada figures show that, of Canada’s

5,426 communities, fully 76 per cent (4,144) do

not have any access to broadband services. These

services are generally regarded as having speeds of

at least 1.5 megabits a second.

Anderson told Municipal Interface that no statis-

tics exist to quantify economic disadvantages s u f f e r e d

by communities without broadband connectivity.

“However,” he said, “we certainly have anecdotal e v i-

dence from many communities that have approached

us to say, ‘This specific business will not stay in our

community unless we are able to provide them with

broadband access.’ ”

(Continued on page 4)

MUNICIPAL

Interface

TOWNS LACKING BROADBANDFACE IMMINENT ECONOMIC LOSS

N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 2 , V O L . 9 , N O 5

Journal of the Municipal Information Systems Association

AL S O I N T H I S IS S U E

FOCUS ON TELECOMMUNICATIONS

PAGE

Vo I P transforms Mississauga 5

Vo I P saves money in Abbotsford 8

Cornwall police go wireless 11

Penticton, school board join forces 1 2

M I S A BC Fall Conference 1 4

Interface

3

MUNICIPAL Interface NOVEMBER 2002

Journal of the Municipal Information Systems Association

Suite 910, 2680 Skymark Avenue, Mississauga, ON L4W 5L6

Phone: 905-602-4564 Fax: 905-602-4295

M I S A Web sites: www.misa.on.ca and www. m i s a . b c . c a

JOURNAL PRODUCTIONC h a i r, Communications Committee: Kathryn Bulko (Toronto) 416-397-9921

Co-Editors: Lawrence Moule 416-458-4410; Jane Morgan 416-488-4961

Design: Natalie Coombs Printer: Select Printing, To r o n t o

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Articles are subject to approval by the Communications Committee.

The views expressed in this journal are those of the individual writers and do

not necessarily reflect those of the Municipal Information Systems A s s o c i a t i o n .

No part of the publication may be reproduced by anyone

without prior written permission from MISA.

Copyright 2002 Municipal Information Systems A s s o c i a t i o n

MUNICIPAL

KEEPING IN TOUCH

A MORE NATIONAL VIEWBy Jim deHoop

President, MISA O n t a r i o

TA B L E O F CO N T E N T S

Mississauga transformed by VoIP 5

Abbotsford leads VoIP in BC 8

Cornwall police go wireless 11

City and school board combine 12

MISA BC conference coverage 14

Integrated cadastral initiative 21

How well do you measure up? 23

Can Linux and Oracle mix? 24

National IT groups meet 27

Winnipeg’s E-Learning Centre 28

Are you ready for the hacker? 29

Municipal news 32

With both MISA and the Municipal CIO

Council becoming national organizations

in size and scope, it’s only natural that we

expand our journal coverage to more truly reflect our

new national identity and mandate. You’ll see first evi-

dence of this over the next few issues in this column,

as colleagues across Canada begin to give you their

views of what’s happening in their parts of the country.

S p e c i f i c a l l y, Frank Mayhood, president of MISA

BC, will write the president’s column in our upcoming

January issue, and our MISA representatives in the

Prairies and Maritimes will provide their perspectives

in the following two issues.

This isn’t so much a change in editorial policy as

an expansion of it. Municipal Interface has always

sought to cover different geographic perspectives. By

giving you a change in the people who write this col-

umn, we will enhance our coverage of municipal

technology issues – and the people involved with them

– right across this country.

This current issue provides coverage of the MISA

BC conference and reports on technology projects in

Penticton and Abbotsford, British Columbia, as well as

in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and Cornwall and Mississauga

in Ontario.

Take a look at the diverse projects municipalities

are deploying and think about the kinds of projects

and strategies that are being employed in your region.

In future, Municipal Interface will, to a greater extent

than ever, be helping municipal IT professionals in all

regions to stay on top of each other’s innovations.

Our journal editors Lawrence Moule and Jane

Morgan are always on the lookout for new material.

Any submissions should be sent to our journal com-

mittee chair, Kathryn Bulko of Toronto.

jdehoop@city.kingston.on.ca. n

4

NOVEMBER 2002MUNICIPAL Interface

COMMUNITIES ANXIOUS FOR ACCESS(Continued from page 1)

Participants in the conference cited personal experi-

ences to show the urgency of the problem.

Garry McGonical, an information systems consultant

from Tecumseh and senior administrative officer of

Toronto-based Regional Networks for Ontario, said he

knows of “a lot of injured communities.”

“Every few weeks I get a call, directly from a mayor

or a committee or a task force that mayors have put

t o g e t h e r, to try to get even DSL Internet access, let

alone faster services,” McGonical said in an interview.

“Not just for their citizens, but for their small local

industries, which are the keystones of their economy.

“Those industries are directly telling them, ‘You get

it in – because Bell won’t put it in, Rogers Cable won’t

put it in – or we are moving our business to where we

can get access.’ ”

Brenda Wilson of CEONet, based in A l e x a n d r i a

near the Québec border, said: “We have been told time

and again by industries that they are going to leave

if they can’t get connected. I’m talking about small

companies based in rural communities in Ontario that

have business in Hong Kong. They have to have the

tools to compete on an international basis.”

Local Needs

Even businesses with local clientele, such as phar-

macies, increasingly need broadband services to gain

access to databases, said Wilfred Lefresne, executive

director of the Algoma District Community Network

(Adnet), based in Sault Ste. Marie.

Lefresne cited the case of an auto mechanic who

lives next door to him in the community of Goulais

R i v e r, about 30 kilometres north of Sault Ste. Marie,

which lacks broadband access.

“Ten years ago he used to get all of his information

out of shop manuals,” Lefresne said. “About five years

ago he started buying the manuals on CD-ROM.

“ N o w, the mechanics in Sault Ste. Marie don’t

even use CD-ROMs. They are online with broadband.

If you take your car in to be fixed, the service technician

goes to his computer terminal and downloads the

appropriate technical bulletin from a Web site.

“My neighbour doesn’t have broadband, so he’s

not in a competitive position with a mechanic who’s

on a broadband connection in Sault Ste. Marie.”

Regional Issues

Anderson said the federal government recognizes the

u rgency of providing rural communities with high-

speed connections, and that the Broadband for Rural

and Northern Development Pilot Program is only a

first step.

“ We are using this program to define community

needs and, once we have defined these needs, we

will be able to determine exactly what is necessary to

make broadband available.”

The program will be delivered in two competitive

rounds. The first-round deadline for submission of

proposals was October 31, but there will be a second-

round deadline of March 1, 2003. Anderson urg e d

communities to register their intent to submit second-

round proposals as soon as possible.

Only communities with no publicly available

broadband infrastructure will be eligible for funds.

Priority will be given to unserved First Nation, northern,

remote and rural communities. Details of the program

are available at http://broadband.gc.ca.

Selections will be made through a two-step process.

First, applicants submit proposals for funds to support

the development of a business plan. The program will

provide up to $30,000, or 50 per cent of the cost, for

that purpose.

The program’s National Selection Committee,

led by David Johnston, president of the University of

Waterloo, will select applicants who will then be eligible

to apply for further funds to implement their business

plans.

In answer to questions from the audience in

Kingston, Anderson said:

• Applicants must have legal status. Municipalities

are eligible, as are library boards.

• Municipally owned rights of way can be included

in the value of community-raised funds to match

the federal contribution, but precisely to what extent

has not been defined.

• Although the government wants proposals to be

technologically neutral, it “would be prepared to

look at” proposals for specified solutions, such as

wireless networks, if the proposal shows that the

technology is the only one viable in the community’s

circumstances. n

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