WHAT IS CAP?
The Community Access Program (CAP) is a Government of Canada initiative, administered by Industry Canada, that aims to provide Canadians with affordable public access to the Internet and the skills they need to use it effectively. With the combined efforts of the federal, provincial and territorial governments, community groups, social agencies, libraries, schools, volunteer groups and the business community, CAP helps Canadians, wherever they live, take advantage of emerging opportunities in the new global knowledge-based economy. Under CAP, public locations like schools, libraries and community centres act as "on-ramps" to the Information Highway, and provide computer support and training.
CAP is the key component of the Government of Canada’s Connecting Canadians initiative, whose goal is to make Canada the most connected nation in the world. CAP started in 1994 in rural communities with populations up to 50,000. Then in December 1999, following a successful pilot program in urban communities, CAP is now being rolled out to larger population centres of over 50,000. By March 31, 2001, Industry Canada wants to establish public Internet access sites in 10,000 rural, remote and urban communities across Canada. It’s hoped that CAP sites will increasingly join together in networking opportunities enabling them to pool resources and form networks to be able to offer even more to their communities.
The vision of the partners is to provide Houston residents access to the number of services using a community network. We envision each partner having maintaining a WEB site, which will allow increased access and awareness to community resources and services. WEB links between all sites will be created and the main CAP homepage will be the default page on all site stations.
The objectives of the project are five-fold:
Part of living in a rural northern community includes understanding that access to resources can be limited. Providing the information highway to the residents will allow them to expand their knowledge base, to explore opportunities for education, business and lifestyles. In addition, it will create an awareness of the global business opportunities. The unlimited audience gained through the Internet will allow the Chamber of Commerce & the District of Houston to promote the community as a whole and tourism specifically. The community is presently in the process of completing a Tourism Strategy. There may be some opportunity for local entrepreneurs to build homepages for local businesses in order to gain credible work experience.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
PROJECT OBJECTIVES
EXPECTED BENEFITS
