Word quickly spread around the Canadian kayaking community a week or so ago that the Canadian Government, in its infinite wisdom, had decided to give up the business of printing paper maps, They unilaterally decided that the digital world had arrived in every Canadian home and so anyone wishing to have a map could easily download the required item and then print it out on our industrial-sized home printers.
Thankfully a group called Maps for Canadians were watching and appealed to people to write in and block the move to an all digital map future. Well, 'People Power' won out and we've got our paper maps back again - for a while at least. That is so gratifying. When I think how much my paddling partners and I have depended on maps to safely take us out into the world we paddle in, it is unbelieveable to think those maps would cease to be available. As for getting my new industrial-strength printer anytime soon, I don't think so!
2 comments:
I think there should always be the choice between digital and paper. the digital sets are really expensive. one good thing they can do is make a 'personalised' map, for instance; most of the detail maps of Scotland are designed for hill walkers so for Loch Sunart you have really to buy three maps to cover it. and its only a wee loch too.
I agree there is room for both formats. This move by the government was simply a move to save money at the expense of our safety. I'm glad they changed their mind.
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