In the year 2020, when the pandemic struck the world, it created vulnerabilities in various areas that may not have received much attention. One such area, as highlighted in a recent report from Cisco, is digital inequity.
As businesses shut down and people in Canada were forced to stay at home, digital connectivity became crucial for staying connected. However, those residing in rural, remote, and Indigenous communities faced the brunt of limited access to digital resources.
It is often easy to overlook these factors when considering Canada’s overall performance. On a global scale, Canada is doing well. According to Cisco’s Digital Readiness Index (DRI), which assesses a country’s progress towards becoming a digital society based on seven components, Canada ranks 17th out of 146 countries.
“On a global level, Canada’s digital readiness performance remains consistently strong, indicating our ongoing investment in critical areas for advancement and competitiveness,” stated Shannon Leininger, president of Cisco Canada, in the Cisco Canada Digital Readiness Index 2023 report.
However, a closer examination of each province and territory tells a different story.
Analyzing the Results
The DRI evaluates seven components: basic needs, business and government investment, ease of doing business, human capital, start-up environment, technology adoption, and technology infrastructure. The higher the collective score, the greater the digital readiness of each province and territory for a technology-driven future.
British Columbia (B.C.) takes the lead with the highest DRI score of 1.71, excelling in the ease of doing business, start-up environment, and technology adoption categories.
Québec ranks second with a score of 1.00, achieving the highest scores in basic needs, business and government investment, and technology infrastructure. Ontario is in third place with a score of 0.98, and Alberta follows closely with a “high” DRI score of 0.83.
Prince Edward Island (P.E.I), Yukon, and Nova Scotia receive a “medium” DRI score.
Image credit: Cisco
Manitoba ranks eighth and is the first province with a score below the national average, at (-0.34). However, the report acknowledges its young population and active labor force as significant strengths.
New Brunswick holds the ninth position with a score of (-0.49), and its lowest performance is in the business and government investment category, setting the country’s lowest score in this area. The Northwest Territories ranks tenth with a score of (-0.60), having the lowest scores for technology adoption and technology infrastructure in Canada.
Saskatchewan comes in eleventh with a score of (-0.62), indicating a need for improvement in the start-up environment and technology adaptation categories.
Newfoundland and Labrador have the second-worst overall score of (-0.73) and are significantly below the national average.
Nunavut receives the lowest score of (-2.28) among all provinces and territories in Canada. This score reinforces the dire need for government intervention to address the basic needs of the population and establish a strong foundation for digital readiness.
Implications for Canada
The varying pace of progress among the 13 provinces and territories highlights the economic and social disparities across the country, posing a risk for Canada.
“If government and policymakers fail to address this gap through continued focus and investment, regions in Canada with the lowest levels of digital readiness will lag further behind, undermining Canada’s position as a digital leader,” warns the report.
Image credit: Cisco
While the report acknowledges the advancements made by the federal government, such as the Connectivity Strategy, it urges prioritizing rural, Northern, and Indigenous communities in these initiatives. The program aims to provide mobile coverage throughout Canada and ensure residents have broadband speeds of at least 50Mbps for downloads and 10Mbps for uploads.
“Even in provinces and territories with high-speed connectivity, rural and remote communities are disproportionately affected. Without adequate high-speed internet access, the connectivity gap across Canada will continue to widen,” cautions the report.
Image credit: Shutterstock
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