This business plan proposes a distance education enterprise within the Walkerton Clean Water Centre (WCWC), that would facilitate proper training and sustained competency for operators, not only in the more densely populated areas of southern Ontario, but also in more remote locations in northern Ontario.

A distance education enterprise manager would work to develop the necessary content for the distance education programming by building links to distance education specialists, such as website designers and application specialists. The distance education enterprise would also act as an incubator for trainers and course content specialists. It would provide an environment within which experienced and knowledgeable operations staff would work with distance education specialists to develop distance education applications. This aligns with the mission and mandate of the WCWC, to deliver and coordinate training for drinking water operators across Ontario.

A business plan has been developed that relies upon a mix of public and private sector funding as initial investment and over a five year period building to become a self-sustaining entity, relying upon student fees and courseware sales. From a marketing and sales perspective, this enterprise can build on the existing goodwill the WCWC has developed in the drinking water industry and the peer linkages with other professionals and associations.