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

Tue Mar 3 17:45:47 PST 2015

Hi all,

This is my personal e-mail address and N-CAP's address is
ncap.nunavut at gmail.com.

In a nutshell, here is what has happened in Nunavut.  I have been getting
progressively more and more ill since last fiscal.  Due to a lot of time
missed at work, the Government of Nunavut did not renew my contract come
April 1, 2014.  I attempted to keep things going myself but my illness
combined with deep depression put me into a tail spin leading to
hospitalization in January/February.  I still have to go back for surgery
(still seeing specialists and uncertain as to date).  In the mean time,
there was nobody to keep things up and I was just unable to keep up/cope.
I have stepped back from almost everything that I had been doing - CAP,
CFS, ICANN, TC and life in general.  I am now trying to pick up some of the
pieces and at least hit the Government of Nunavut now that I have put N-CAP
back in good standing and they now have it on Hansard that the Department
of Education has money for the CAP system.

I am sorry for letting TC down as one of the many groups I was involved in
and have let slip.  I am now at least keeping up with the e-mails and
getting some things moving but am still of very limited use to the system.

So, there you go.  I do miss you all VERY much and hope to slowly get more
involved but we shall have to see.

Thanks to those of you who were concerned!

Darlene

On Tue, Mar 3, 2015 at 7:12 PM, Brian Beaton <brian.beaton at knet.ca> wrote:

> Good evening ... I just wrote an email to Darlene Thompson using her gov't
> of Nunavut account and it bounced. Does anyone have her new email address?
> I
> hope she is doing okay wherever she lands ...
>
> Woliwon
>
> Brian Beaton
> Research Associate, Keewaytinook Okimakanak Research Institute
> Researcher, First Nations Innovation Project
> Graduate Student, Faculty of Education, Critical Studies, University of New
> Brunswick
> Settler ally of Indigenous peoples and future generations
> Contact Details:
> Snail Mail: Box 104, Station A, Unceded Wolastoqey Traditional Lands,
> Fredericton, NB, E3B 4Y2
> T: 877-737-5638 x4522
> E: brian.beaton at unb.ca
> First Nations Innovation - Researching and Publishing First Nation ICT
> innovations - http://fn-innovation-pn.com and http://fni.firstnation.ca
> KO Tribal Council - http://knet.ca and KORI - http://research.knet.ca
> e-Community - Bringing People Together with ICT innovations -
> http://e-community.knet.ca
> First Mile - Sharing First Nation ICT stories and innovations -
> http://firstmile.ca
> University of New Brunswick, Faculty of Education, Graduate Studies and
> Mi'kmaq-Wolastoqey Institute - http://www.unb.ca/fredericton/education and
> http://www.unb.ca/fredericton/education/mmi
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: advisors-bounces at tc.ca [mailto:advisors-bounces at tc.ca] On Behalf Of
> Michael Gurstein
> Sent: March-03-15 7:20 PM
> To: advisors at tc.ca
> Subject: [Advisors] FW: [CommunityInformaticsCanada] Admin hiccups
> jeopardize public internet "CAP" sites in Nunavut
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: cracin-canada-owner at vancouvercommunity.net
> [mailto:cracin-canada-owner at vancouvercommunity.net] On Behalf Of
> media at web.net
> Sent: March 3, 2015 11:41 AM
> To: cracin discussion
> 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/
> <http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/stories/article/65674admin_hiccups_jeopardizing_public_internet_sites_in_nunavut/>
>
>
>
>
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