The realization that a substantial segment of Canadian society could participate in a college education only if barriers of time and distance were removed led to an emphasis upon the concept of distance education as a necessary and desirable component of the programming of a community college. Recently, however, critics have argued that the comprehensive, but conventional, community college is structurally unable to adapt to the wide diversity of learning needs in the community, a point of view which invites debate on the feasibility of distance education as a component of college education. There are several dimensions to this issue, including those related to: (1) the mandate of the community college to serve the educational needs of rural and urban populations in designated areas within certain financial constraints; (2) the comprehensive nature of the community college curriculum; (3) the organization of distance education (e.g., the integrated model, dual mode model, and single mode specialist institution); (4) coordination of effort; and (5) instructional methods. Across the 10 provinces, activity within the colleges with respect to distance education has been somewhat limited, although several factors are contributing to increased involvement in this field, including government support and greater availability of course material. Among the many and varied experiments in distance education currently found in Canada's community colleges, one notable case is North Island College on Vancouver Island, which has adopted an open learning methodology involving correspondence courses, mobile instructional resources, and a variety of technical support materials and delivery systems. Distance education in creative formats under imaginative and cooperative planning will assuredly become a regular supplement to classroom instruction in the eudcational future of Canada's colleges. (EJV)