First Nations in Canada have legal status as self-governing autonomous communities with elected governments. These governments have a responsibility to their constituents. They deliver public and community services in areas like health, education, policing and security. This work is financially supported by the Canadian government, which has a fiduciary responsibility to First Nations associated with Aboriginal and treaty rights. Given this relationship, the Government of Canada provides funding to First Nation governments to deliver services to their members.
First Nations governments point out that the level of funding for these services is lower than that provided for non-Native communities. For example, the Assembly of First Nations has released a number of studies documenting funding discrepancies in areas of education. As a result of these conditions, First Nation governments are in a constant struggle to secure the funds required to deliver appropriate services.
Funding issues are one challenge in projects associated with technology, including the development and implementation of broadband-enabled public service applications. Many First Nations find it hard to secure enough funding to support adequate infrastructure, applications, training, and ongoing support and maintenance. We consider these issues in more detail in Topic 10, which focuses on policies to support e-Community development.
Another challenge is our lack of understanding of the direct impacts of online public services. Little empirical evidence conclusively demonstrates a direct causal relationship between the availability of digital ICTs and broadband networks, and improved health and education outcomes. In part, this is due to the complexity of generating accurate measurements. The promise of distance education and e-health is also tempered by the persistence of digital divides and social inequalities.
But despite these caveats, researchers and policy-makers increasingly recognize that broadband availability correlates with social, cultural, and economic development. For example, Benkler (2010) writes that “high capacity networks are seen as strategic infrastructure, intended to contribute to high and sustainable economic growth and to core aspects of human development” (p. 11). Arguments for universal access in states like Estonia and Finland go so far as to frame access to networked digital infrastructure as a human right, given its perceived role in delivering essential public services.
The 2020 report from Secretary-General of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on the “Question of the realization of economic, social and cultural rights in all countries: the role of new technologies for the realization of economic, social and cultural rights” offers one perspective on a human rights-based approach to access to digital technologies as they pertain to rights like health and education.
The Department of Indigenous Services Canada (ISC)
In 2019 the Government of Canada replaced the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada with the Department of Indigenous Services Canada, whose mandate states:
The founding of the ISC coincided with An Act respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis children, youth and families, which came into force on January 1 2020, which references the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP) and Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the founding of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada (CIRNAC), whose mandate states:
While such changes reflect the developments taking place in Canada, including the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement of 2006, PM Stephen Harper’s apology in 2008, publication of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s report in 2015, the endorsement of UNDRIP in 2016 and proposed legislation to implement UNDRIP in 2020, the legal foundation of Indigenous People’s status in Canada continues to be the Indian Act of 1876. This text from Indigenous Foundations explains the Indian Act’s origins and why it has yet to be replaced. Nonetheless, these legislative changes indicate a significant turn toward bridging the gaps in equality and addressing the harms of Canada’s colonial relationship to Indigenous People.
The Digital Divide is one indicator of the inequality of access to basic services that exists in many Indigenous communities. The COVID19 pandemic has shown the extent of the disadvantage remote and Indigenous communities face, particularly in the areas of health and education services.
First Nations governments also support the potential use of broadband-enabled applications to deliver services in their own communities. This position is reflected in the work of the Assembly of First Nations, through its e-Community Strategy (described in Topic 10). Across Canada, individual First Nations are engaged in the development and use of broadband-enabled public services.