Media.Knet.Ca

Everyone is invited to watch the live webcast of Minister Bartolucci of Northern Development and Mines in Sioux Lookout that took place this morning at 10 am CDT. Click here to watch the video as a Windows Media streaming file.

Minister Bartolucci was fogged in at the Sudbury airport so Diane Martin, NOHFC Board member stepped up to announce their funding contribution towards assisting 13 remote satellite First Nations in Northern Ontario to access additional satellite bandwidth in addition to five of these communities getting a local cable system to connect the homes, businesses and organization to this improved service. Four terrestrially served communities are also part of this project to complete the work necessary for all Nishnawbe Aski Nation communities to have broadband access in all these remote First Nations.

Geordi Kakepetum, Executive Director of Keewaytinook Okimakanak will be in Sioux Lookout to speak with Minister Bartolucci about this initiative. Keewaytinook Okimakinak (KO) is working these First Nations and their First Nations Councils (Windigo and Shibogama) to successfully implement and complete this work.

Thirteen of the First Nations participating in the project are already served by satellite connections. They are: Attawapiskat, Cat Lake, Eabametoong, Fort Severn, Kasabonika, Martin Falls, Muskrat Dam, Neskantaga, North Caribou Lake, Peawanuck, Sachigo Lake, Slate Falls and Webequie. However, the current satellite bandwidth capacity cannot meet the growing demand for services and transactions that call for high-speed connection.

The remaining communities of Bearskin Lake, Kingfisher Lake, Koocheching and Wawakapewin are served by land-based systems. These communities and five of those served by satellite, currently lack cable or telephone networks to connect subscribers to the Internet.

The K-Net project will address both of these gaps by:

• increasing bandwidth by leasing additional satellite capacity for an 11-year period; and
• overseeing the construction of cable and telephone networks to provide broadband connections to all homes and organizations in participating communities that are currently lacking this service.

A third component of the project will see a satellite earth station built in Montreal to support the existing earthstation that is located in Sioux Lookout. K-Net has a Memorandum of Agreement with two Aboriginal organizations in Manitoba and Quebec to deliver broadband service to the satellite served communities in those provinces. These thirty-one other remote Aboriginal communities are associated with the Keewatin Tribal Council (Manitoba) and the Kativik Regional Government (Quebec). For more information about this inter-provincial partnership called the Northern Indigenous Community Satellite Network (NICSN), visit http://smart.knet.ca/satellite.

In addition to the NOHFC and the communities involved, other private and public sector partners in this major project include Telesat Canada and other levels of government.

From the Osprey News Network - Timmins Daily Press ...

First Nation praises proposed land transfer
Shirley Mills - July 03, 2007

Missanabie Cree First Nation members might soon have a place to call their own.

Ontario has agreed that the First Nation is entitled to 15 sq. miles of Crown land the band argues it was entitled to, according to treaties signed more than a century ago

The land is, in part, in West and Stover townships and borders on the Chapleau Game Preserve.

Band officials says members have scattered far and wide, but expect residents to eventually return to their roots thanks to the agreement.

Four open houses were recently held to explain the proposed land transfer, which has a provision the land does not involve private property.

The claim involves Treaty 9, first entered into agreement in 1906 between the federal and provincial governments and the various Cree and Ojibway First Nations in the James Bay Coast watershed.

"Our community has been waiting more than 100 years for this and we're excited," Chief Glenn Nolan said.

"We look forward to working with the municipalities and other First Nations to strengthen economically."

In 1996, Canada accepted the claim. In 2000 Ontario also accepted and negotiations began.

Following an environmental assessment and the proposal being evaluated as a Category B project for Ministry of Natural Resources stewardship and facility development projects, it's expected a decision on the exact location and boundaries will be ironed out by the fall.

It's anticipated the land transfer will take place in the spring of 2009.

"Now I can come home," said Deputy Chief Audrey Bateson, who lives in Saskatchewan.

Dan Goodwin, negotiator for the Ontario Secretariat for Aboriginal Affairs, said the 15-square-mile land transfer reflected on 101 band residents in 1906.

But now, an additional 55 square miles of Crown land, which the First Nation contends it's entitled to, has been temporarily set aside. It will take a court process to sort it out, Goodwin said.

"Now that they know they have a place of their own, there will be community and economic development to become self-sufficient," Goodwin said. "Members of the MCFN have scattered, but this is providing the opportunity for our members to come back," Nolan said.