Read more about First Nations Community Networks and Aboriginal-led broadband development projects in Canada
French Publication #35-F
Read more than 70 stories of First Nations community broadband development located on this website
Explore these stories on a Google Map that shows their distribution across Canada
Digital Divides and the ‘First Mile’: Framing First Nations Broadband Development in Canada, Publication #36.
Research from Communities in Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada
Story from Wawatay News about e-Community opportunities
In its recent testimony to Parliament, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce called an Aboriginal not-for-profit community satellite network a “success story” for rural broadband. In his March 7, 2013 comments to the Industry, Science and Technology Committee, Scott Smith from the Canadian Chamber of Commerce directly references the Northern Indigenous Community Satellite Network as a success story for rural broadband. To read these comments, visit the transcript of this presentation. From the transcript:
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Peter Braid Kitchener—Waterloo, ON
…I’m intrigued about your proposals for public-private partnerships in remote areas. I think that would be one of the answers to solving access in aboriginal communities, for example. Are there any models or examples where a public-private partnership like this has existed in Canada or outside of the country that we could point to?
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Scott Smith
There’s one in Canada, and I’ll always get the acronym mixed up so I’ll look it up. It’s NICSN. It’s Northern Indigenous Community Satellite Network. That’s a clear example of what has worked well.
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Peter Braid Kitchener—Waterloo, ON
Do you know where that community is, or do you have any additional information about that particular project?
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Scott Smith
I can leave the committee with a copy of this report afterwards.
[The report that Mr. Smith refers to is available here.]
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To clarify, the ‘private enterprise’ that Mr. Smith refers to in the so-called ‘public-private partnership’ is Broadband Communications North (BCN). BCN is a community-owned non-profit private enterprise based in Manitoba.