Airdrie, Alta., Smithers, B.C., Winkler, Man. and Arcola, Sask. will soon share more than the fact that they are all small, rural communities in Western Canada.
Sometime later this year they all should be launching their first community internet sites.
In early January, the federal government announced these communities, and 145 others across the West, were among rural communities to be approved for 1998 funding under the Community Access Program.
Each community will be eligible for up to $30,000 to establish an internet site in a public building accessible to members of the community.
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The CAP is part of Ottawa’s $30 million program to try to ensure that most of rural Canada has access to the internet by 2000.
The 1998 funding will be close to $15 million and in Saskatchewan, the provincial government will share the cost of the project.
“We will now be receiving proposals from these communities which have been chosen,” Rachael Folkes, program management assistant for the CAP program in B.C. and Alberta, said last week from Victoria.
“It could include everything from establishing the physical site to hiring people who can train some of the local people in how to use it.”
They were among several thousand communities that applied last autumn for funding.
The western Canadian breakdown for funding this year, including both rural and Native communities, is: Saskatchewan, 34; Manitoba, 29; Alberta, 31; and B.C., 55.
Across the country, more than 830 rural communities were approved for funding this year.
Applications from other communities with a plan will be called for next autumn for 1999 funding.
“The government of Canada wants to make the information highway accessible to all Canadians by the year 2000, making Canada the most connected nation in the world,” said industry minister John Manley in a new release announcing the funding.
Money for the program was set aside in last year’s budget. The goal, as laid out by finance minister Paul Martin, is to add 5,000 rural and remote communities to the internet by the fiscal year 2000-2001.
The site can be in local libraries, government buildings, post offices or in any other negotiated site open to the public, said Folkes.
