We end with an example of how several First Nations in Ontario are putting the e-Community strategy into action. A 2013 paper by Brian Beaton and Peter Campbell describes how the five KO First Nation communities (Fort Severn, Deer Lake, Keewaywin, Poplar Hill and North Spirit Lake) are using social media and locally owned and managed broadband systems. These remote, fly-in communities reflect a diversity of languages, cultures, histories and geographies. Residents face high costs of living, and retain a strong connection to the land. They are governed by an elected Chief and Council, who work with local service program managers and community members.
Each of the First Nations operates its own school, health centre, administration complex, water and wastewater plants, electrical network (three of the communities), roads, heavy equipment, airport, and social service programs that every community is expected to provide for its residents. All these community services use and increasingly rely on adequate broadband infrastructure.
Members of these First Nations are actively using digital networks and online applications to sustain and support their local e-Community. The authors describe how they are “collaborating to build sustainable local environments and opportunities that support employment and equitable access to services – including housing, health, education, safety, security – along with the physical infrastructure to support these services” (p.4). Their work incorporates the principles of OCAP, as reflected in community ownership and control over their infrastructure. Below, watch a short clip of the e-Community project in North Spirit Lake.
One of the paper’s authors, the late Brian Beaton, worked with these communities for nearly 20 years. In 1995, he visited North Spirit Lake First Nation for the first time, and learned the community had no airport, a single payphone, minimal infrastructure and no electricity. When he wrote the paper less than 20 years later, the community had a new school and health centre, operates its own electrical, roads, water and wastewater systems, as well as its own cellular, fiber, coaxial cable for television and internet, and wireless network. Community members built all these projects themselves, and retain ownership of the infrastructure today.
In contrast, two other First Nations – Deer Lake and Fort Severn – received electrical and telecommunication infrastructure through a development process led by the federal government, which contracted large urban corporations to build, own and operate those systems. The corporate projects suffered from slow upgrades, with their private sector owners unwilling to invest in infrastructure unless the government provided public funding to cover costs. This negative experience led the two First Nations to build their own digital network infrastructure. Today, both communities are operating their own mobile and internet services.
Beaton and Campbell (2013) write that the comparison between these two communities leads to the conclusion that ownership of the development process leads to more robust, sustainable infrastructures – along with local jobs and capacities.