By ANDREW WAREING
Back in 1994, even while the Internet was in its infancy, a group of First Nations communities could already see its potential for communication.
K-Net has since grown from an online bulletin board service to a full-scale broadband Internet service provider for many of the Nishnawbe-Aski First Nations communities, north of Sioux Lookout.
“What we’ve been able to demonstrate is the power of this media as a means of communication,” says Brian Beaton, K-Net services co-ordinator. “First Nations people have always been excellent communicators. We have always picked up the tools for communication and used them in ways that many couldn’t even imagine.
“It also allows communities to share resources and increase opportunities economically as well,” he says.
K-Net provides a number of services, including e-mail, Web site hosting, as well as network support for
conferences and connecting classrooms together to provide high school education to several communities at once.
Of the more than 50 communities throughout the Nishnawbe-Aski First Nations, approximately 25 communities
have access to the broadband network.
Beaton says that K-Net has been a development of the community with the support of its leaders.
“I think that is one of the most important elements of K-Net. It was a development by the community and supported by its leaders and it continues to be that way.”
K-Net’s beginnings can be traced back to 1994 when many of the communities in the Keewaytinook Okimakanak First Nations lacked even basic phone service. Beaton says that people involved with the service had to “do a lot of interesting things” such as send information on disks flown from community to community.
“The point of it was to support the young people in the schools to exchange messages and connect with others, but also to give the schools support in using these kinds of communications tools,” says Beaton.
A trip by several band chiefs from the area to Ottawa in 1998, and a visit to the Ottawa Heart Institute to view their tele-health service, gave them a glimpse of the potential of an Internet service. The service allows physicians to hook up with patients from widely separated points in the country.
“The chiefs got into the elevator afterwards and said, ‘Why is that located here in Ottawa and not in our community’,” Beaton says. “Since that time, they’ve been green-lighting a lot of these applications.
He says that a lot of co-operation was required between the First Nations bands, Industry Canada’s FedNor program and Bell Canada to develop the actual infrastructure to allow broadband Internet service to rural communities.
This infrastructure development has allowed people in the community to develop new services to meet the needs of local organizations that need to keep in touch with people and clients over large distances. It also means that northern communities are also able to connect through K-Net to Health Canada’s North Network that connects them to important health services.
“That was a $17-million project that we’ve been involved with over the past two years,” he says. “We’ve just submitted a proposal under the Primary Health Care Transition Fund to expand that to all 24 communities within the region.
Nineteen communities have their own community networks that are connected to the K-Net network. By expanding into that service, it would help pay for that connection and help contribute to local community development.”
The network also provides high school education opportunities with classes taught via videoconferencing.
Beaton says the network gives the community access to markets across Canada and around the world.
“What we’ve done is position Northern Ontario as world leaders, as a place to do business,” he says. “We’ve taken a most-difficult-to-access location and helped them to become partners in any kind of development across
the country and around the world.”
