Christine Kay
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (July 29/02) - A delegation of four people from the government of India paid a visit to Iqaluit last week as part of a three-week Canadian tour.

Representing their country's Department of Telecommunications, they came to observe Canada's Community Access Program in the hope of developing something similar in India.

The program is a federal government initiative started in 1994 to boost Internet access in Canada's rural communities. Its goal is to provide affordable public access to the Internet and to the global economy.

The delegates from India are here to witness the success of the program.

"We are working ... to see the special environment of communities which are far spread. We have shorter distances and more population, but the technologies we need are much the same," said S.K. Malhotra.

Nuluaq is Iqaluit's community access program site, situated at the public library.

"A free site like this, even though it makes no business sense, works well in the community," said Anthony Kwiatkowski, a member of the Nuluaq board.

The reason it doesn't make sense from a business perspective is it's absolutely free. The reasons it works well within the community are many, he said.

Kwiatkowski said the library provides a location and in turn attracts more patrons. Capital funding, as well as some annual grants, for the program come from Industry Canada. At the same time, Kwiatkowski said city businesses are also expected to contribute.

Nuluaq's three computers are maintained by three students. They work about 20 hours a week and are given the opportunity to learn about computers and earn some money.

Malhotra and the rest of the delegation will take the information they gather about projects like Nuluaq and bring it back to India. They will focus on making communication equipment more available in rural communities.