Canadian Government Executive - Volume 25 - Issue 03

26 / Canadian Government Executive // August/September 2019 Rural Canada Renaissance or Residue? By Jeffrey Roy Governing Digitally W ith 5G mobile networks now in operation in select cities across the US and South Korea, Canadian cities can soon expect to benefit as well. In fact, sev- eral wireless carriers are currently testing 5G functionality in major urban centres in anticipation of what’s to come. And what’s to come is a big deal. 5G, or fifth generation mobile wireless technol- ogy, promises Internet speeds of up to twenty times faster than current peak lev- els, unleashing new business models and services unimaginable today. The rise of social media, ride-sharing apps, and video streaming, for instance, have all happened as 4G transformed the cell phone into a powerful computing device. Some observ- ers suggest that 5G may well be equivalent to what the browser did for the Internet. The World Economic Forum estimates 5G’s global economic impact to potentially reach twelve trillion dollars by 2035. Yet such connectivity is unlikely to be comprehensive as a myriad of market dy- namics and social forces driving urbaniza- tion around the world tends to reinforce a geography of innovation nestled in emerg- ing ‘smart cities.’ Toronto’s fledging water- front district, Sidewalk Labs, a partnership with Google, personifies such a path. Is urbanization, however, really the opti- mal solution for countries and for human- ity? The OECD has identified three, broad global ‘mega-trends’ shaping social and eco- nomic development the world over: digi- talization, demographic migration (from rural to urban dwellings), and climate change. While all three are often viewed in- terdependently through the prism of smart cities (as technology enables greater ecolog- ical sensitivity), it bears noting that two also carry at least the potential to do the oppo- site – namely facilitate new opportunities for rural empowerment. The founder of Zoom, a cloud-based vid- eo conferencing service points out that his platform can enable individuals to work re- motely from anywhere, expanding flexible work arrangements and reducing travel costs that are financial, social, and envi- ronmental. This same logic nevertheless also raises the question of why Zoom itself continues to reside in Silicon Valley, one of the costliest and congested places to do business. According to one survey by The Mercury News, the region’s quality of life is deteriorating to the point where nearly one half of the local population wants to leave. With respect to the environment, while ubiquitous, electric, and autonomous vehi- cles carry hope for a greener version of ur- ban living, such a transition will be lengthy and complex. For the foreseeable future, the world’s largest cities are doomed to ev- ermore congestion exacting a steep toll on both residents and the climate. Toronto is once again a case in point, with some of the longest commutes on the continent for many – and a Province investing billions in an an- tiquated and over-extended public transpor- tation system that will never keep up. What if provincial and federal govern- ments sought to harness technology to lessen the inevitably of urban living? Such has been the perennial, yet seemingly un- attainable promise of digital government, as the public sector is mainly replicating the Silicon Valley model by creating inno- vation labs and modernized buildings and workspaces in downtown cores. The work- ing culture of traditional administration reinforces such tendencies: on paper the Government of Canada offers widespread flexibility for alternative working arrange- ments that are nonetheless viewed as out- side the norm and countervailing to career advancement. It is within such context that the federal government’s 2019 budgetary pronounce-