Industry Canada has annouced that funding for the Community Access Program (CAP) has been discontinued effective April 1, 2012.
 
In a letter dated April 5, 2012, Industry Canada stated that “CAP was scheduled to end March 31, 2012, and will not be renewed.” The Government believes that the program “has successfully achieved its objectives.” You can read CBC's coverage of the announcement.

Such announcements have occurred in the past, but concerted advocacy efforts on the part of the library community convinced the government of the day to change its plans. Such advocacy efforts are only truly effective if they come from a grassroots level. Consequently, it is important that any efforts with regard to CAP come from the local level.

Here are some useful tools created by TAL and APLEN for libraries to use to write their Member of Parliament.

CAP Facts Sheet
CAP Advocacy Letter

This announcement does not affect the recently completed CAP 2011-2012 grant submissions, which will be processed as per usual.