TORONTO — Despite the high level of Internet access among Canada’s population, a lack of citizen participation in the country’s digital economy is leaving huge opportunities for government and business largely untapped, according to a new study by Ipsos Public Affairs.
In a national telephone survey of Canadian residents conducted in October, Ipsos found 91% of respondents said they subscribe to Internet broadband at home, with an additional 2% saying they accessed the Internet elsewhere outside the home and another 2% saying they were mobile data subscribers only. Respondents who said they do not access the Internet at all accounted for the remaining 5% of those surveyed.
As part of the study, Ipsos identified the level of Internet use among respondents, and created an overall index of digital participation based on their frequency of participating in a range of Internet activities, including digital economy and social online activities. Those who scored very high on Internet use accounted for 11% of all those surveyed, while 8% fell into the very low category. High, moderate and low Internet users equalled 26%, 28% and 20%, respectively.
“I think it’s worth pointing out that we often frame this debate around access, and it’s not (about access). It really is about participation,” said Mike Colledge, president of Canadian Public Affairs for Ipsos, speaking at an event on December 11 to release the study’s findings.
Colledge pointed out 95% of survey respondents said they have access to the Internet in some way, shape or form, but 56% were identified as being only moderate or low (including very low) in terms of digital participation. Furthermore, when asked what might be hindering them from taking full advantage of the Internet to participate in the digital economy, 54% of all of the survey respondents indicated they felt they were already taking full advantage of the Internet.
For those who indicated there are barriers to taking full advantage of the Internet, the issue of motivation or not seeing the value in using the Internet was cited by 17% of respondents. In addition, 16% said they had a capability issue or lack of knowledge and skills to take full advantage. Finally, 12% said it came down to an issue of opportunity, with a lack of access or an inability to afford it among the reasons for why.
Looking at the range of transactional and social activities available online, Ipsos found varying levels of digital participation. For example, 59% said they regularly bank online, however, drilling down into the data, 92% of those identified as very high Internet users said they bank online, while only 10% of very low Internet users said they do. A significant difference in degrees of participation within the various Internet user groups was seen across the range of transactional activities included in Ipsos’s study.
Generally speaking, the majority of those surveyed do not participate on a regular basis in the online transactional activities included in the study. For example, only 38% said they conducted online research on topics of interest, such as health-related information. Thirty percent said they shopped, bought goods or services, or booked travel online. Visiting or interacting with government websites was something only 17% of respondents said they do. Similarly, 17% said they organize social or community activities online. And when it comes to interacting with healthcare professionals, such as booking appointments or checking lab results, only 6% of survey respondents said they do those kinds of activities online. (Although it’s not as though a whole lot of doctors and labs offer that yet.)
Colledge said there are huge opportunities, for government in particular, to try to move moderate and low Internet users to engage in online transactional activities. “Not only can it improve services for them, but also when you look at the pressures on government, for some of those things, the opportunities for cost savings and putting those (savings) into other areas are huge,” Colledge said.
“The lesson for governments in this is you may build it and they may not come.” – Mike Colledge, Ipsos
When it comes to boosting e-government services, though, is Canada prepared as a country to actually deliver those types of things online, and secondly, if they are made available, will people actually take advantage of them? “I think the lesson for governments in this is you may build it and they may not come. So you need to build and then at the same time communicate the benefits and spend a lot of time (on education and awareness),” he explained.
Setting up an e-government site and allowing people to do transactions online doesn’t mean government departments will be able to shut down their bricks-and-mortar operations or 1-800 phone services, Colledge said. As an example, where before callers to the Canada Revenue Agency may have been phoning to request a form be sent to them, now they may call to clarify information on the form that they’ve downloaded from the CRA’s website.
In addition to transactional online activities, Ipsos also asked its respondents about their level of participation in social and cultural activities online, such as emailing, listening to music and instant messaging. Respondents’ participation in these activities was somewhat higher — “because these are a lot more fun,” Colledge said — but as before, the low and very low Internet users were much less likely to take advantage of them, he said.
In general, 84% of survey respondents said they used email on a regular basis. Two-thirds said they read, watch or listen to news online and almost two-thirds (64%) said they use social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Listening to music or the radio or watching TV shows or videos online were combined as one activity, with 56% of respondents saying they do at least one of those activities online regularly.
Using instant messaging such as Google Chat, MSN Messenger or Whatsapp was something that 43% of respondents said they did. Just 24% said they blog or post content online on a regular basis, and 21% said they make telephone or video calls using applications such as Skype or Facetime.
Among the trends identified by Ipsos over the last several years, participation in the social-political space online doubled from the 2011 federal election through to the last election, Colledge said. In addition, blogging is increasing, as is user-generated content, but there are still huge gaps between the participation levels of very low and low Internet users up through the moderates to the very high users, Colledge said.
“At 95% penetration, the opportunity is there. However, I think we have a long way to go before all or even a majority are seeing those increased economic opportunities or levelling the playing field on equality,” Colledge said. “There’s a bit of myth-busting I think that has to happen around the opportunities of what is out there around the Internet,” he added. “The Internet needs a bit of its own general education and awareness of what the opportunities are because people are looking at it through a very narrow lens of what’s available to them and what they can do.”
