[Advisors] FW: [CommunityInformaticsCanada] Admin hiccups jeopardize public internet "CAP" sites in Nunavut

[Michael Gurstein]

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Sent: March 3, 2015 11:41 AM
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Subject: [CommunityInformaticsCanada] Admin hiccups jeopardize public
internet "CAP" sites in Nunavut

Admin hiccups jeopardize public internet "CAP" sites in Nunavut

"... With money running out, a vanished Government of Nunavut administrator
and a lot of confusion over what constitutes "good standing"
for a board of directors, free, public internet access across Nunavut might
be in jeopardy.

The funding, provided under the Community Access Program since 2012 by the
GN and by the federal government prior to that, pays for new computers and
internet service at public locations across the territory such as libraries
and community centres.

[...]

"The Community Access Program is a program that is run by a board, and at
this time . the board is not in good standing," Quassa said in response to a
question from Iqaluit-Tasiluk MLA George Hickes.

This lack of "good standing" means his department cannot provide any funding
to the board, Quassa added.

But Catherine Hoyt, chairperson of the Friends of the Iqaluit Centennial
Library since 2006, told Nunatsiaq News that there must be a mix-up between
the education department and the Nunavut Community Access Program (or N-CAP)
board.

Hoyt's organization operates the library CAP site - the only public internet
access in Iqaluit.

"Whether or not the N-CAP board is in good standing, I have no idea. But
we've never dealt with the board at all. We've only dealt with GN employees
who administered the N-CAP program. That's who we've always submitted our
proposals to, our receipts and our invoices to, at the end of the year,"
Hoyt said March 2.

In a letter to Quassa dated Feb. 22, shared with Nunatsiaq News, Hoyt wrote
that she feared the consequences of this mix-up would cause hardship for
some of Iqaluit's most vulnerable, impoverished people.

"Approximately 95 per cent of our CAP site users are Inuit who do not have
home computers or any other access to computing services or the internet,"
Hoyt wrote.

"Any cut to our funding could have devastating effects on accessibility to
the internet and technology for the Nunavummiut who need it the most."

Hoyt said that received regular assurance from an education department
administrator that the roughly $6,000 in annual funding her society receives
was still coming.

Usually the money arrives anywhere between September and December, Hoyt
said, so she didn't start worrying until Christmas rolled around and the
department still hadn't offered a contribution agreement.

And then in January, her emails to the usual administrator suddenly went
unanswered.

"Finally an answer came: 'oh, that administrator doesn't work here anymore.
If you have any questions you have to contact Ron Elliott, the chair of the
board'," Hoyt said.

"And I thought, 'who's he? Why should I have to contact him?' I would've
contacted him a long time ago, but I didn't realize he had anything to do
with the whole process."

According to Hoyt, Elliott gave a different story from what she had been
told by the education department.

Elliott informed Hoyt that no money had been released to the N-CAP board by
the education department and that even if there was money, there was no
longer a GN administrator to facilitate that release. ..."

http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/stories/article/65674admin_hiccups_jeopardizin
g_public_internet_sites_in_nunavut/