Athabasca University Community Adjustment Fund Announcement

November 09, 2009

Thank you, and good morning…President Pannekoek, Jeff Johnson, staff and students

It is a pleasure to be here today on behalf of our Government, the Hon. Lynn Yelich, Minister of Western Economic Diversification, and Prime Minister Stephen Harper
It is exciting for me to be here once again today, to express our government’s continued investment, involvement and support in the innovative developments are taking place at Athabasca University. 

We all know that our communities across Western Canada have been hard-hit by the current economic slowdown. 

Canada’s Economic Action Plan was designed back in early 2009 to help Canadians of all walks of life to weather this global economic slowdown in the short term; but also to keep building economic prosperity for the future.

I believe that there is no greater way that we can invest this long-term vision for Canada, than through investments such as the ones that we have already made in educational and training, programs and institutions across Canada.

Our ability to provide not only high quality, but increasingly accessible educational opportunities to all Canadians, is what will set our course for the future.

As Canada’s only “Open University”, those of us in this community have seen Athabasca University continually striving to set a new standard for distance education,
With over 350 educational partnerships internationally, Athabasca University is truly setting the course for our region’s development, and showcasing to the world the many resources and innovations that our Northern Alberta has to offer!

The Open University at AU is already bringing superior opportunities for  post-secondary learning to over 30,000 students coming to them from across Canada and beyond

These numbers will continue to increase for as long as the creation and expansion of these online courses and programs continues… which is why I’m so pleased to be here today to announce more federal funding for Athabasca University through the Community Adjustment Fund

Community Adjustment Fund – or CAF as it is known – is a $1 billion dollar Canada-wide two-year economic stimulus measure that was designed specifically for communities such as Athabasca, to stimulate local economies by helping a variety of local industries to prosper.

The CAF fund was specifically envisioned to support affected communities right here in Western Canada, such as those that rely on resource-based industries – such as forestry, mining, agriculture and fisheries, as well as communities that depend on the manufacturing sector.

This short-term response will help us to maintain our region’s economic strength and prosperity by creating and maintaining jobs right now, and supporting programs that show the most potential to re-invigorate and inspire our local economy to flourish in the future.

So, today, I am very pleased to be here with you to announce that under the Community Adjustment Fund our Government is investing $3.2 million towards Athabasca University’s Course Digitization for this Online Learning project.

The project will involve converting the content of 450 existing courses into a digital format and thus will benefit Athabasca and surrounding areas by creating immediate employment opportunities for those possessing basic computer skills. 

In addition to creating jobs in the Athabasca region, this investment, adding to the 17 million already invested in AU, will broaden and enhance their ability to offer world class distance learning

This project will provide an increasingly diverse distance-learning student body with even more opportunities to advance their education, and prepare them to contribute to economy of the future.

In total, our Government will invest $306 million throughout Western Canada, and I am very proud that we can help support such impressive initiatives in Northern Alberta.

This stimulus funding is about addressing our present challenges, dand I am confident that investments such as this one will help ensure our Western communities and industries remains strong, because a stronger West means a stronger Canada.

Thank you.