{"id":411898,"date":"2022-03-04T02:07:04","date_gmt":"2022-03-03T23:07:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/news-from-canadas-critical-digital-business-revolution\/"},"modified":"2022-03-04T02:07:04","modified_gmt":"2022-03-03T23:07:04","slug":"news-from-canadas-critical-digital-business-revolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/news-from-canadas-critical-digital-business-revolution\/","title":{"rendered":"#News from Canada&#8217;s critical digital business revolution!"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a3db82fb4a95\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a3db82fb4a95\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/news-from-canadas-critical-digital-business-revolution\/#%E2%80%9CNews_from_Canadas_critical_digital_business_revolution%E2%80%9D\" >&#8220;News from Canada&#8217;s critical digital business revolution!&#8221;<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9CNews_from_Canadas_critical_digital_business_revolution%E2%80%9D\"><\/span>&#8220;News from Canada&#8217;s critical digital business revolution!&#8221;<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<div>\n                                                                        It was a surprise to see the Prime Minister making an <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/politics\/article-4-billion-canada-digital-adoption-program-opens-for-grant-and-loan\/\">announcement on e-business<\/a> on Thursday, since his government and most others around the world are properly preoccupied with events in Ukraine. Surprising but encouraging. Wanting to work on more than one thing at a time is so rare a merit that it should be encouraged, as Lincoln <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shapell.org\/manuscript\/abraham-lincolns-celebrated-wanting-to-work-letter\/#:~:text=Wanting%20to%20work%20is%20so,knows%20a%20few%20of%20them.\">almost said<\/a>. And in fact, Thursday\u2019s announcement has been a long time coming. Let\u2019s peek under the hood.<\/p>\n<p>The Canada Digital Adoption Program announced Thursday, <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/politics\/article-4-billion-canada-digital-adoption-program-opens-for-grant-and-loan\/\">as the <em>Globe<\/em> reports<\/a>, is designed to help Canadian businesses succeed in the fascinating and mysterious world of the internet. And when it was originally announced 11 months ago, it was depicted as a bit of a big deal.<\/p>\n<p>The 2021 federal budget was\u00a0a bit of a momentous document, following the previous federal budget <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/politics\/federal-budget-coming-question-period-1.5960695\">by two years<\/a> and, at over 700 pages, the largest budget book ever. It also marked the first <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>earance in new roles by the finance minister, Chrystia Freeland, and by the department\u2019s star recruit deputy minister, Michael Sabia. And obviously it was released in an atmosphere of lingering pandemic crisis.<\/p>\n<p>In a budget-day conference call with journalists, a senior finance department official we weren\u2019t allowed to identify by name devoted most of his or her remarks to highlighting post-pandemic economic recovery measures.\u00a0One of the first few things the\u00a0senior-finance-department-official-we-weren\u2019t-allowed-to-identify-by-name talked about was a program to send young tech-savvy Canadians into small businesses to help convert them to the digital economy. The senior-finance-department-official-we-weren\u2019t-allowed-to-identify-by-name was tremendously excited by this plan.<\/p>\n<p>Much of this excitement was reflected in the language of the budget document. The 2021 budget promised \u201cunprecedented and historic investments\u201d in small business, to give them \u201ca shot at becoming the Canadian-headquartered global champions of tomorrow.\u201d Indeed, the government would put $4 billion toward a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/game\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"7\" title=\"Game\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">game<\/a>-changing new effort\u201d to help up to 160,000 small and medium-sized businesses \u201cbuy the new technologies they need to grow.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At the heart of this effort was the Canada Digital Adoption Program, which would \u201ctrain\u2026 28,000 young Canadians\u2014a Canadian <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/technology\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"4\" title=\"Technology\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">technology<\/a> corps\u2014and send them out to work with our small and medium sized businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This program\u2014not only unprecedented, historic and game-changing, but also, <em>per<\/em> the budget document, \u201cgroundbreaking\u201d \u2014 would \u201chelp Canadian small businesses become more efficient, go digital, take advantage of e-commerce, and become more competitive in Canada and abroad.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I was skeptical from the outset. Twenty-eight thousand digital advisors is a <em>lot<\/em> of people. What\u2019s the demand for their youthful energy?<\/p>\n<p>I guess that\u2019ll depend how many businesses are, simultaneously:<\/p>\n<p>(a) not yet online, 30 years into this \u201cinternet\u201d thing;<\/p>\n<p>(b) interested in going online;<\/p>\n<p>(c) unable to figure out for themselves how to get online; and<\/p>\n<p>(d) likely to ask the government of Canada for help.<\/p>\n<p>This feels like a smallish Venn intersection. In particular, I\u2019d be damned curious to know how many businesses are in both groups (c) and (d). I know we\u2019re angry at the web giants this year, but if I type \u201ctake my business online\u201d into the popular internet website \u201c<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.ca\/\">Google<\/a>,\u201d I get a little north of 9 billion results, including <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ownr.co\/lp\/get-started\">this<\/a> and <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.godaddy.com\/garage\/take-your-small-business-online\/\">this<\/a>\u00a0and <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.oberlo.ca\/blog\/moving-your-business-online\">this<\/a>\u00a0and <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/covid.smallbusinessbc.ca\/hc\/en-us\/articles\/360047347633-Taking-Your-Business-Online\">this<\/a>\u00a0and <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/canadiansme.ca\/getting-your-business-online-a-step-by-step-guide\/\">this<\/a>. I was a little surprised Shopify wasn\u2019t one of the top hits, because I think if you asked 40 strangers how to take your business online, 38 of them would tell you to try Shopify.<\/p>\n<p>I worried the feds might be creating an army of <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=n7z6AKPGDZ4\">Maytag repairmen<\/a>, but inspired by the excitement of nameless officials I decided to wait and see how the new program evolved. In <strong>July<\/strong> Mary Ng, a minister of assorted things, announced a <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.canada.ca\/en\/innovation-science-economic-development\/news\/2021\/07\/minister-ng-announces-a-call-for-applications-for-stream1-of-the-canada-digital-adoption-program.html\">call for applications<\/a> for part of this \u201cCanada Digital Adoption Program.\u201d This wasn\u2019t yet a chance for businesses that wanted to go online to line up some youthful digital advice. No, first the Trudeau government was just looking for \u201cnot-for-profit organizations\u201d to run the program. The winning organization(s) would be responsible for \u201crecruiting, mentoring and training students\u201d who would then take businesses online. Interested non-profits had until early August to apply.<\/p>\n<p>Ng\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">news<\/a> release was of course loaded up with adjectives about how important all this was. Small businesses would be \u201ccrucial\u201d to the economic recovery; expanding digital adoption was \u201ccritical\u201d to Canada\u2019s competitiveness.<\/p>\n<p>I began a correspondence with ISED, the department formerly known as Industry, about the program\u2019s evolution. Ng\u2019s call had been for the \u201c<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ic.gc.ca\/eic\/site\/152.nsf\/eng\/00011.html\">Grow Your Business Online<\/a>\u201d component of the Canada Digital Adoption Program, the department told me on <strong>Aug. 3.<\/strong>\u00a0This first component of the strategy would employ \u201cup to 11,200 young digital advisors.\u201d A second component, \u201c<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ic.gc.ca\/eic\/site\/152.nsf\/eng\/00013.html\">Boost Your Business Tech<\/a>,\u201d would hire 16,800 more young people and would be announced \u201csoon.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There followed, very soon after, a wholly unnecessary federal election. Nobody should expect files like this to go anywhere during a campaign. But in <strong>mid-<\/strong><strong>December<\/strong> I checked in with ISED for an update. Who\u2019d been selected to run the program? Were businesses now being launched into the future?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMore than 50\u201d not-for-profits had applied to run Grow Your Business Online, the department told me, \u201cand we are currently finalizing our selection process.\u201d Indeed, the process of selecting an organization to run the second component, Boost Your Business Tech, was also \u201cnearing completion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This was exciting, so I waited two more months and then asked, in <strong>mid-February<\/strong>, whether the department had an update on the process they had been finalizing two months earlier, or on the one that had been nearing completion. The department replied that \u201cas of currently there has been no update to our previous response.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This delay must have been frustrating to you, if you are the owner of a small business with no access to Google or a smartphone. Ten months after announcing a historic and game-changing plan to provide critical and crucial help to the many businesses that have not yet progressed beyond 8-track tape,\u00a0the government hadn\u2019t decided who\u2019s going to run the thing.<\/p>\n<p>I can\u2019t overstate how common this sort of thing is. Whether it\u2019s <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/opinion\/article-once-a-promising-leader-canadas-artificial-intelligence-strategy-is\/\">government support for artificial intelligence<\/a> to its plan to <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/thelogic.co\/news\/ottawas-program-for-buying-from-startups-falling-far-short-of-liberal-governments-promise-financials-show\/\">drive industrial innovation by buying the shiniest new widgets for use by the government itself<\/a>, we\u2019re getting used to a world where the last good day for a government program is the day it\u2019s announced.<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, now we have an announcement! The details remain sketchy. ISED has laid on a technical briefing for journalists for Friday, at which officials will answer detail questions. I couldn\u2019t help noticing that Friday is after Thursday, which was the day journalists had a chance to ask the PM about the program. Back when the Harper Conservatives were in power, and the government started explaining programs after ministers had already taken questions about them, we naively assumed this backward arrangement was a reflection of Stephen Harper\u2019s unique disdain for questions and the people who ask them. Turns out it wasn\u2019t unique! Turns out it\u2019s pretty generic.<\/p>\n<p>Anyway. A few answers are coming to light. Who\u2019ll run the Grow Your Business Online component? <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ic.gc.ca\/eic\/site\/152.nsf\/eng\/00047.html\">This page suggests it\u2019ll be various organizations<\/a>, depending on location. Coverage seems spotty: If you live in Atlantic Canada, you\u2019re to apply to the New Brunswick Association of Community Business Development Corporations.<\/p>\n<p>Do the 13 service providers each have an average of 861 young digital concierges ready to head out and show businesses how to turn on their laptops? Uh, maybe? <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ic.gc.ca\/eic\/site\/152.nsf\/eng\/00011.html\">This page<\/a> sure makes it sound like the young web gurus are not yet actually standing by. \u201cE-commerce advisors will have the opportunity to work with local small businesses,\u201d it says. \u201cAdvisors will receive training from their service provider.\u201d Soon, perhaps.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m actually trying to imagine a company that, in 2022, isn\u2019t online yet; wants to get online; and figures the quick way to do that is to apply to a government program that began accepting applications 11 months after it was announced. It\u2019s an open question whether such companies, if they exist, should be encouraged to keep acting that way. And I keep coming back to how, on the day of the big budget, this was the first thing the government wanted to brag about.<\/p>\n<div class=\"under-article-widget-nl\">\n<p class=\"under-article-widget-title\">Looking for more?<\/p>\n<p class=\"under-article-widget-description\">Get the best of <em>Maclean&#8217;s<\/em> sent straight to your inbox. Sign up for daily stories and analysis.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async defer crossorigin=\"anonymous\" src=\"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more News articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/general\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">General category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.macleans.ca\/politics\/ottawa\/news-from-canadas-critical-digital-business-revolution\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;News from Canada&#8217;s critical digital business revolution!&#8221; It was a surprise to see the Prime Minister making an announcement on e-business on Thursday, since his government and most others around the world are properly preoccupied with events in Ukraine. Surprising but encouraging. Wanting to work on more than one thing at a time is so&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":411899,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.macleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/CP151900147-766x431.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[126390,67806,48,67816,101805],"class_list":["post-411898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-canada-digital-adoption-program","tag-editors-picks","tag-internet","tag-justin-trudeau","tag-mary-ng"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}