Socio-Economic Impact of ICT in Remote First Nations
Keewaytinook Okimakanak was working on building broadband infrastructure and applications several years before Canada’s National Broadband Task Force began its work in January 2001. Historically remote First Nations across this region of Northwestern Ontario picked and used communication tools in unique and innovative ways. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are proving to have the same level of popularity as earlier communication tools such as radio and television. The challenge to be active participants in the development and ownership of these technologies provide First Nations with the opportunity to address a vary of their socio-economic needs.
Canada’s Broadband Task Force developed a blueprint for the government to consider as they produced a strategy to connect every community across the country to broadband services. The task force met over a six month period to produce the final report, “The New Nation Dream: Networking the Nation for Broadband Access” ( Our experience as members of this task force saw the formation of two main streams of thought. The major telecommunication industries felt that given sufficient resources to build the required infrastructure, then they would simply take care of the challenge. On the other end of the spectrum were the community based representatives who lobbied hard to put available resources into the communities for local socio-economic development efforts.
A result of this debate was the presentation of two approaches to broadband development that the task force labeled the “Infrastructure Support Model” and the “Community Aggregator Model” ( These two models might easily be considered to be at the two ends of the broadband development spectrum. Our experience within the Kuh-ke-nah Network of Smart First Nations project ( and is proving these two approaches to broadband development are closely linked in any successful broadband deployment environment.
“Kuh-ke-nah” is the Oji-Cree term for “everybody” or “everyone” – the term defines the goals of the overall project.
The importance of effective and meaningful partnerships in developing broadband opportunities in rural and remote communities is an important highlight of our work. Good partners are those that support equitable and affordable access to broadband services and connectivity in the spirit of SHARING and RESPECT. It is not about being “taken care of”, creating dependencies or holding back information for one’s own gain.
As the Smart Communities project began, it became evident that great efforts would be required to ensure everyone was able to accommodate the goals of the project within their own corporate or institutional environment. Building and developing local capacity to own and maintain their local broadband infrastructure is still the working model that makes the Kuh-ke-nah Network (K-Net) unique within this effort to bring broadband connectivity to every Canadian community by 2005.
A number of building blocks were put in place over the years to lead to the present effort by the Federal Canadian government to build broadband infrastructure in rural and remote parts of Canada (). Other agencies partnered with Keewaytinook Okimakanak to develop and explore the impact of ICTs in remote First Nations. The regional economic development corporation in Northern Ontario (FedNor – ) invested heavily to ensure communities had the ICT hardware and infrastructure to develop broadband applications. They continue to be active participants in these developments across Northern Ontario. Industry Canada’s SchoolNet () and Community Access () programs provided support for several local community initiatives and continue to do so. Other funding programs contributing to the ongoing development and capacity building efforts over the years are documented in the seven year review found at .
The important success factor for these developments was the local and regional partners that spent time and resources supporting and understanding the value of the work and efforts in each of these rural and remote communities. This required people who lived and worked in the region. These developments would never have happened with people who live and work in urban centers, far removed from the communities.
A series of articles are now being produced (two articles every two weeks) by Rick Garrick of Wawatay News () over this coming year. The first articles were presented in the March 6 issue and the next two articles are now ready for the March 20 issue. These articles are written to describe how ICTs are making a difference in remote First Nations. Within this paper, each article has been adapted to include additional on-line references to assist the reader to understand the environment and resources that are now in place as a result of the introduction of ICTs in these communities.
North Spirit Lake’s e-Centre: the local hub of ICT activity
(adapted from the original story by Rick Garrick for March 6, 2003 issue of Wawatay News)
Despite a hydro shortage in the community, North Spirit Lake’s E-Centre is still running.
“On the morning of Feb. 17, Generator 1 caught on fire,” said Darlene Rae, the E-Centre manager in North Spirit Lake. “Today we are running on Generator 2.” The E-Centre was advised to use the minimum amount of hydro in order to stay open. “We’re only running three computers now,” Rae said. “We have five sitting here that can’t be used.”
North Spirit Lake’s E-Centre is the longest running E-Centre in the Kuh-ke-nah Network (K-Net) of Smart First Nations. The other centres are located in Deer Lake, Fort Severn, Keewaywin and Poplar Hill. A search on the photo gallery () for “nsl” shows a variety of pictures of happenings from the NSL e-Centre.
“I’ve been working here since it started in March 2001,” Rae said. Arnold Thompson, the multimedia producer, has also been working at the E-Centre for two years, and Paul Campbell, the technician, has been working at the E-Centre for six months.
The three employees maintain the North Spirit Lake E-Centre, by assisting with hardware, helping with the homepages on K-Net, and by entering requests for a homepage on a database using e-mail. They also provide technical training, help to fix and repair any computer problems, and install cable modems and network cards into computers throughout the community. Approximately 20 homes now have high speed internet connections.
“It’s great,” said James Rae, the community access program youth worker, about residents being connected to the internet. “Now they don’t have to come here to the community e-centre.”
But many people do use the E-Centre, including some parents in the community who recently met for two hours with their children at Pelican Falls First Nation High School via a video conference in early February.
Children and young adults are currently the main users of the E-Centre. The E-Centre is the distribution point for World Wide Web access in the community, allowing local organizations and residents to send and receive e-mails, to conduct research and to surf the internet for news and information.
“Upgrades in equipment and a new building that we would share with the library are what we would like to see in the future,” Rae said.
The manager also organizes training and delivers hands-on introductory sessions and workshops from the E-Centre. Rae explained that it usually takes a while to become accustomed to being in a video conference. “The first time we were camera shy,” she said. “We didn’t like to look at the camera. It’s mostly the younger people who are willing to go in front of the camera.”
And 16 grade four, five and six students from the Victoria Linklater Memorial School in North Spirit Lake are involved in the KANATA exchange program with students from a school in B.C. The students thank their teacher, Joseph Farsang, for helping to achieve this project for the school.
“It’s good,” said Dancine Rae, a grade six student in the program, describing her involvement in the computer class and an upcoming trip. “The internet is helping us with the KANATA program.” Currently, the students are planning a trip to the exchange school in early May.
Another service provided by the E-Centre is the Telehealth service at the community clinic. Some of the Telehealth services provided include video conferencing sessions with a wide range of medical specialists, continuing health education, teleradiology and retinal screening for signs of diabetes related blindness.
And video conferences from the other E-Centres are a common occurrence. “Mostly to get a look at what’s going on in the other reserves,” Thompson said. “People like to get news from the other communities.”
Rae explained that when people in a different community, or even in their own community, are having a difficult time, they are able to chat with family or friends in another community. From this experience, a few have been encouraged to keep on going in spite of the difficulties of life.
Making the connections work in Fort Severn First Nation
(adapted from the original story by Rick Garrick for March 20, 2003 issue of Wawatay News)
Angus Miles () keeps the Fort Severn First Nation end of K-Net running smoothly.
“I’m the computer tech for the community,” Miles said, explaining that he maintains K-Net (Kuh-ne-kah Network of Smart First Nations – ) in Fort Severn. “I make sure all the computers are up and running.”
Miles explained that most of the network problems in Fort Severn are just little glitches, such as damaged cable ends or cables.
“Whenever we have a problem, I go over and check all the connections to make sure everything is okay,” he said. “They usually contact us right away.”
Problems usually vary from situation to situation.
“For just a few computers, it doesn’t take long to get them back up and running again,” Miles said, explaining that half an hour would be longest period. The new cable plant provides a connection to every building in the community (). But when they do have a major problem, he first checks the equipment in Fort Severn.
“Sometimes, the problem is up in the satellite or in Sioux Lookout,” Miles said, explaining that their longest downtime was about five hours over a weekend. For more information about the satellite system in place in Fort Severn visit and (in the Network photo gallery at ).
Any hydro power outage in Sioux Lookout could affect the whole network because K-Net’s servers are based in Sioux Lookout, explained Adi Linden, K-Net’s network system analyst. “That’s addressed by having a UPS,” Linden said. UPS (uninterruptible power supply equipment) is a system that includes a battery to maintain power in the event of a power outage.
Linden explained that the longest downtime for the network was due to an eight-hour power outage in Sioux Lookout. But the network was only affected for a short period because UPS provided a supply of power until the battery ran out.
And the growing pains from a rapidly expanding audience at K-Net have also caused problems, Linden explained. “If the server needs more memory, you have to limit connections,” he said. So K-Net has been upgrading their equipment to accommodate the increase traffic on the network.
“We’ve upgraded the mail server,” Linden said. “So it’s more capable of handling more users.”
K-Net has a network-monitoring system () which lets them know when any site becomes unreachable. When the network goes down, K-Net analyzes the problem to discover what is wrong before they dispatch for repairs. Traffic patterns and information is collected and made available to everyone to identify potential opportunities for further development ( and individual community traffic charts showing real time traffic on selected Kuh-ke-nah Network nodes can be found at )
“Whoever is available takes the call to get the wheels in motion,” Linden said, referring to the K-Net employees who keep the Sioux Lookout end of the network running.
Telehealth: Helping improve access and services in remote First Nations
(adapted from the original story by Rick Garrick for March 20, 2003 issue of Wawatay News)
“Telehealth – it is very beneficial to some people,” said Jessie Matthews, coordinator for Keewaytinook Okimakanak’s Telehealth in Fort Severn. “Patients don’t have to leave their families or community to see a doctor.”
She explained that the KO Telehealth pilot project () saves time and reduces trips out of the community for those patients who can use the services provided.
The variety of health services now available through KO Telehealth is currently increasing for some Sioux Lookout Zone communities. A recent telehealth workshop () resulted in a detailed report outlining the importance of this service across the region ().
A Diabetic Retinopathy camera has already visited four of the communities. “It takes photos of the inside of the eye,” said Gibbet Stevens, the scheduler of referrals for KO Telehealth, explaining that the camera is brought into the community for several days in order to send images to specialists located in health care facilities in Northern Ontario. The camera was purchased for the region under the KO / NORTH Network Telehealth CHIPP project. “The images are viewed by specialists to determine who needs further treatment.” Retinal exams are used to check for early stages of diabetes and to identify eye disease.
Teleradiology is another service planned for the future. “We’re going to be getting teleradiology some time this year,” Matthews said. “We’re getting training at the end of the month (March) about the equipment and how to use it.”
Telepsychiatry services are currently being used on a weekly basis, Stevens explained.
Diabetes education for patients is also a service that is provided through KO Telehealth. “So far, we’ve held one diabetes clinic,” Matthews said. “We were connected from Sioux Lookout. The diabetes nurses saw the clients who needed to be followed up or newly diagnosed diabetics.” Prevention, diet, and nutrition are some of the topics covered.
And a digital stethoscope, which can be hooked up to the KO Telehealth workstation, will be available in late March. The workstation currently has an otoscope, a document camera, a patient exam camera, a microphone, a VCR, a video monitor, a phone/fax, a video conference control unit and an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) that provides up to one and a half hours of use in the event of a blackout.
A store-and-forward program is used with a digital camera to take photos of a patients’ injury, rash or growth which are then sent encrypted via K-Net to physicians for diagnosis. The otoscope is used to send images of the patients ears, eyes and throat and the document camera can be used to send x-rays for diagnosis.
Eventually, KO Telehealth will service the whole Sioux Lookout Zone area via K-Net. The pilot project, which was officially launched in Aug. 2002, recently expanded from KO’s five communities to include three of Shibogama First Nations Council’s five communities. “Kingfisher Lake came on board a few weeks ago,” Stevens said in early March. “Wunnumin Lake came on board Friday (March 7th), and Wapekeka will be on board shortly. Our goal is to expand to include all 28 Sioux Lookout Zone communities.”
KO’s Telehealth office in Balmertown is the hub of KO Telehealth’s activity, receiving referrals from throughout the region. “I schedule all the referrals from the KO region and Sioux Lookout Zone,” Stevens said, explaining that they are in contact with specialists in Toronto, Winnipeg, Thunder Bay and sometimes Sioux Lookout.
“Every month, there are more specialists that come on board.” The Menoyawin Health Centre and the Shibogama Health Office in Sioux Lookout as well as the Balmertown Health Office in Red Lake are currently connected to KO Telehealth, along with the KO communities of Deer Lake, Fort Severn, Keewaywin, North Spirit Lake and Poplar Hill and the recent additions from Shibogama.
And KO Telehealth is connected via the NORTH Network Telehealth Initiative to hospitals across Northern Ontario, the Health Science Centre in Winnipeg and Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto.
“It’s a quick way to get access to a doctor about urgent health matters,” Matthews said. “Or to see a doctor or follow-up with a specialist out of the community.”