GATINEAU – With the analog cut-off date now less than a year away, a group of media watchers and researchers is calling on the government to kick start a public education campaign.
In an open letter to Prime Minister Harper, the group – which includes the likes of the Canadian Media Guild, the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, and the Canadian Association for Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS) – said that the communications campaign must provide Canadians with information on the change and on their options.
The letter says that some of those options include alternatives that communities could implement themselves in order to maintain their access to over-the-air television, such as community re-broadcasting of remote services using digital multiplexes; free-to-air community channels; local emergency info, weather and news headlines over wireless phone services; and free wireless Internet, as has been implemented throughout US public schools.
“The fact that the digital transition has been mandated in large Canadian urban centres only, and may not occur at all outside these centres, underscores the fact that rural communities need to know their options if they are to take full and equal advantage of the potential of digital technologies”, the letter reads. “Surely the point of “going digital” is to open up new possibilities, not shut them down – and this enormous potential needs to be publicized.”
CACTUS spokesperson Catherine Edwards said that the digital transition “poses a threat to rural and low-income Canadians” in particular.
"Going digital should represent an opportunity for smaller communities, not a step backwards", she said in a statement. "What no one’s telling Canadians is that for a fraction of the price of cable or satellite, communities can maintain their own transmitters and multiplex new services: a local community channel, free wireless Internet, local emergency, weather, or news updates. Communities with as few as 300 households are doing it. But it needs planning. Municipalities have to get this information in time."
