CAP site closures cutting deeper into rural Canada

SUMMERSIDE — Malpeque MP Wayne Easter said the Stephen Harper government is ignoring the needs of everyday Canadians with his government’s move to cut funding for Community Access Program sites.

“The bottom line is there are cuts, with the exception of the Youth Internship and that is going to continue at eligible CAP sites,” Easter said. “We don’t know what that means.

“What clearly is the problem here is rural Canada has been decimated by this budget. The EI centres, 99 of them cut across Canada, and in the rural areas they’re taking the brunt of these cuts.”

Easter said as far as the CAP sites go, there is so much being done on the Internet that closing these locations will have a definite impact particularly in rural Canada.

“What Ottawa doesn’t understand, certainly Harper doesn’t understand, is there are a lot of people out there without the means to have a computer in their homes,” he said. “There may not be a whole lot of them, but it’s critically important to have those CAP sites for those individuals.”

He believes the cuts to CAP sites is hurting low-income earners. “It’s putting them at a further disadvantage.”

Easter said there is not a lot of money being saved by government in pulling this funding.

CAP sites “employ people and they assist people who don’t have the technology at home to learn the technology and to utilize it to better their lives,” the MP said. “Now that’s gone.”

Easter also criticized how and when this cutback was announced.

“Industry Canada chose to release this information on the Thursday night before Good Friday and just before the long weekend. Come on!” he said. “What inhumanity. This is affecting people’s lives. If it’s such a wonderful decision why didn’t they release it at high noon.”

CAP programs have been operating out of community centres and libraries nationwide for nearly 17 years, making the Internet available to all Canadians.

The program funding pays for the Internet web connection, salaries of co-ordinators and technical support, and rent in community centres.

Forty CAP sites across Prince Edward Island will be affected by the cutback.

A spokesperson for the federal Industry Office said the need for such a program has diminished.

A release from the Industry minister’s office stated, “The Community Access Program was launched in 1995 and has met its objectives.

The vast majority of Canadians are now connected to the Internet at home, while many more have access through their mobile devices.”