The Montérégie Rural Team

The activities of the Montérégie Rural Team cover five regional county municipalities: Acton, Haute-Yamaska, Vallée-du-Richelieu, Les Maskoutains and Rouville.

The team members are:

The Montérégie Rural Team is co-chaired by Denis Robitaille, Canada Economic Development Advisor, and Richard Latendresse, Director of the Richelieu-Yamaska Human Resources Centre of Canada.

Co-ordinator:
Richard Laflamme, Senior Development Officer, Human Resources Development and Skills Development Canada
E-mail: richard.laflamme@hrsdc-rhdcc.gc.ca

Achievements:

• Projet PACTE in Waterloo, aimed at promoting learning, communication, work and employability in this municipality.
• Cyber-journal project in partnership with 22 Internet Community Access Centres and regional county municipalities involved with the project.
• E-commerce project consisting of three components: high-speed, e-commerce and mega-connection targeting the community sector.

E-commerce project

This project is an initiative of the Acton Community Futures Development Corporation, supported by the Montérégie Rural Team. Its activities continued until 2003.

The e-commerce project consists of three components. The first one is to improve e-commerce development tools by implementing a high-speed coalition for the Acton region and by offering high-speed tools to residents. The second component makes entrepreneurs in the Acton region aware of e-commerce by offering them tools, and technical and financial support for e-commerce development. The third component is designed to promote the region's e-commerce development by creating a service portal (Web site) to indicate where information and services can be found and to promote the region.

The first phase of the project to bring high-speed Internet access to the Acton region is complete. Training sessions were held in March 2002 to inform local entrepreneurs about e-commerce. The number of businesses in the area that have an Internet site has already increased significantly since the project's launch.

Cyber-journal project

This project allows young participants in rural areas to make use of the technology tools offered in the Internet Community Access Centres by carrying out a structured project (the Cyber-journal) and developing skills so they can re-enter the labour market or return to school. This project is being directed by the Service de développement des technologies de l'information, in partnership with the 28 Internet Community Access Centres and the regional county municipalities of Acton and Les Maskoutains. It will also help young people find their place and increase their self-confidence.

The project is divided into two components: one that highlights the various social and cultural activities, and technology tools in the region; and the other, more journalistic in nature, involves the production of an electronic newspaper for the regional county municipalities of Acton and Les Maskoutains to inform residents of regional activities.

The Montérégie Rural Team supported this project, and its efforts secured a contribution of $269,000 under the auspices of the Youth Internship Canada program.

Projet PACTE in Waterloo
- Promouvoir les Apprentissages, la Communication, le Travail et l'Employabilité

The main goal of this project is to give 10 youths facing multiple barriers to employment in Waterloo (population 4,000) the opportunity to benefit from a personalized support service for one year, and to enable them to find employment and keep it. Obviously, preference is given to applications from young drop-outs who are very interested in returning to school.

The project, piloted by the Community Access Centre of Waterloo, offers:

• workshops focussed on acquiring basic employment skills;
• the exploration of trades and workplaces through internships;
• the facilitation of the employment integration process; and
• an increase in employability.

PACTE supports youths through a coordinated approach, delivers assistance tailored to their individual needs and provides a positive community experience.

The Montérégie Rural Team has supported this project and its efforts have secured a contribution of over $196,000 from Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, under the Skills Link program. Contributions from the City of Waterloo, the Waterloo Library, three private sector enterprises, private donors and the Community Access Centre of Waterloo have brought the total value of the Projet PACTE to almost $228,000Can exemplary pooling of this community's resources.

Abitibi-Témiscamingue Rural Team
The Lower St. Lawrence Rural Team
The Eastern Townships Rural Team
The Montérégie Rural Team

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