WELLINGTON - May 17, 2024 - A brand-new pilot project has just been launched to help businesses, co-operatives and organizations translate their website texts, primarily from English to French. This grant program can cover up to 75% of translation costs, to a maximum contribution of $2,000.

RDÉE Prince Edward Island will manage this program, in collaboration with the Wellington Rural Action Program and the Acadian and Francophone Chamber of Commerce of PEI (CCAFLIPE).

"The Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency is funding this new Web Translation Program to ensure that francophones have access to web texts in French," explains Raymond J. Arsenault, RDÉE PEI communications officer and CCAFLIPE manager. "The clients we target for this program are mainly anglophones or francophones who have web material in English that they want translated into French. So we've established a small network of certified or accredited translators to handle the work."

The translation request form, which can be accessed at https://garago.net/forms/Translation, is very simple to complete. Essentially, all applicants have to do is identify themselves and provide the material they want translated (either in a document or a link to the site to be translated). The administrators will then obtain a price and time estimate from one of the translators and make an offer to the customer. Once the offer has been accepted, the three partners (customer, translator and RDÉE) sign a translation contract. The customers pay for their portion of the project immediately, and then the work begins.

Please note that this program is aimed at translating basic site content texts, rather than weekly sales, news, bulletins and regular updates. The portion paid for by the customer cannot come from other federal sources. 

The program operates as a pilot project until September. Its success and usefulness will then be evaluated to determine whether it will be renewed. A very limited amount has been granted in this first pilot period, so the program will proceed on a "first come, first served" basis.

For more information, visit www.rdeeipe.net/translation.

PHOTO: The administrators of the Web Translation Program, who are proud to launch this new pilot program, are, from left, Josée Arsenault, client information officer at the Wellington Rural Action Centre, Raymond J. Arsenault, manager of the Acadian and Francophone Chamber of Commerce and RDÉE PEI’s communications officer, and Amy Richard, administrative financial assistant from RDÉE PEI.