John Manley, Minister of Industry, and Kevin J. MacAdam, PEI's Minister of Fisheries and Environment and Minister Responsible for the Community Access Program on PEI, jointly announced 15 new Community Access Program (CAP) sites across Prince Edward Island. Ten new CAP sites will be located in the communities of Bedeque, Bonshaw, Fort Augustus, Grand Tracadie, Mount Stewart, Tracadie, Tignish, the East Prince Youth Development Centre and Elm Street Elementary in Summerside, and Westisle Composite High in Elmsdale. Five additional CAP sites will be established within ACCESS PEI locations in Summerside, O'Leary, Souris, Montague, and Wellington. The CAP sites are the result of a federal-provincial Framework for Cooperation. Under it, the federal and provincial governments, in partnership with community-based organizations, jointly fund public Internet access centres.
"Initiatives such as this one help the government reach its goal of making Canada the most connected nation in the world by the year 2000," noted Minister Manley. "The Community Access Program centres will give these communities access to the Knowledge-Based Economy. These communities will see benefits through economic and social development as they become connected to the rest of the world through the Information Highway."
Minister MacAdam stated, "With all 65 schools and libraries on Prince Edward Island now directly connected to the world wide web via our broadband network and 26 CAP sites up and running, this province is well on its way to Island-wide coverage and access to the Information Highway. These new sites will soon join our Island-wide network and, as early as the spring of next year, Prince Edward Island will have established 41 CAP sites."
The announcement took place at a Kensington (KenNet) CAP event at the Kensington Intermediate Senior High School. The ministers were treated to a demonstration of the CAP site's Virtual Museum Web site featuring digital representations of Kensington area archives and artifacts. The Virtual Museum received funding from Industry Canada's SchoolNet Digital Collections (SDC) Program.
"The Community Access Program has been very beneficial to our community since it began here in 1995 and we are pleased to host the announcement of 15 new sites on the Island," said Roscoe Pendleton, KenNet Chairperson.
Through CAP, the federal government aims to connect up to 10,000 remote, rural and urban communities by the year 2000. The program is a key component of the Canadian Strategy for the Information Highway, which helps create jobs, growth and other benefits associated with the development of information technology. Through CAP, the Government of Canada is also helping rural Canadians take advantage of emerging opportunities in the global, knowledge-based economy.
For more information, contact:
Community Access Program at 1 (800) 268-6608, E-mail: comaccess@ic.gc.ca, Web Site: http://cap.unb.ca;
CAP PEI, Grant Sweet, (902) 368-6435, gsweet.cap@pei.sympatico.ca;
SchoolNet Digital Collections, Web Site: http://www.schoolnet.ca/collections;
Access PEI, Albert McDonald, (902) 368-5582.