Understanding the geography of Industry Canada's Community Access Program in Toronto

• Main Author: Zang, Lijuan
• Other Authors: Buliung, Ron
• Language: en_ca
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: Digital Divide; Community Access Program; Geography; GIS; 0366
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1807/32171

Industry Canada’s Community Access Program (CAP) aims to provide affordable public access to the Internet and the skills that people need to use it effectively. In fact, the CAP is an Industry Canada effort to bridge the digital divide (rural-urban, intra-urban). In the City of Toronto Industry Canada funding is used to support CAP sites managed by two organizations, the Learning Enrichment Foundation and the Toronto District School Board. CAP was implemented through the establishment of community-based public Internet access facilities. The implementation of the CAP in Toronto has resulted in the use of a wide range of organizations and locations including: libraries, schools, community centres, employment and social service agencies, and language development centres. This research asks the question, is the current network of CAP locations adequately geographically organized to meet the demand for service provision? Adequate supply means that the neighbourhood CAP supply is not over-served and under-served. Data from Industry Canada’s CAP database and the Canada census are input to a modeling process that combines multi-attribute decision analysis with a location-allocation model. The results suggest that there is likely a need to reevaluate the geographical structure of the current CAP network, with a view to achieving a more equitable allocation of supply.