Donate used tech

The City of Toronto’s policy of donating its used computer equipment to non-profit groups that serve the city’s most vulnerable residents makes a great deal of sense. These surplus devices, worth so little to the city, can make a significant difference in the lives of those for whom lack of access to computers, printers and the internet is a persistent obstacle to education and job opportunities.

So why, given that this sound initiative is official policy, did the city donate only 222 of the more than 11,000 tablets, laptops, desktop computers and other electronic devices it declared surplus last year? Why, instead, did it sell these devices for what is, in the scheme of city finances, a relatively paltry sum of $18,000, which it then reinvested in its own IT services?

The city says the program is so little used because non-profits don’t want to bear the costs of transporting and installing the equipment. But a more plausible explanation was hinted at by Francisco Rota, executive director of ReBOOT Canada, a non-profit that connects low-income people with inexpensive technology: “No one ever told us about it,” he told the Star.

Rota’s organization, which refurbishes donated equipment and places it, without charge, with dozens of non-profits in the city, said he made several inquiries at city hall about surplus technology, but “no one ever articulated a policy.”

He’s not alone. So obscure is this policy, in fact, that last year veteran Councillor Joe Mihevc put forward a motion, eventually passed, asking the city to donate its surplus technology, only to be told that such a policy has been in place since 2007.

Clearly there’s a communications problem here. “If the policy is good but no one knows about it, then it’s like a candle under a bushel,” said Mihevc. He rightly decried the city’s failure to get the word out as “shameful.”

The $18,000 the city earned last year from the sale of surplus technology will not buy a lot of new computer equipment for the government. But the devices that were sold off could have done a power of good for social justice if used as the city’s own policy demands.

Too many struggle to do what most of us take for granted: check email or print resumés, stay on top of internet job boards or apply for government services online. Lack of access to technology compounds disadvantage and undermines equality of opportunity. The city has a good policy in place. It should stop undermining it.

Devices sold off by the city could have done a power of good for social justice