Since the last week in April, KO staff members have travelled to different events across Ontario and Manitoba sharing information, supporting other communities and working to further the development of broadband connectivity in First Nations.

Chief John McKay, Jesse Fiddler and Brian Beaton made the trip to Ottawa to attend the Smart Communities meetings with other project teams from across the country. Pictures of these meetings can be seen at http://photos.knet.ca/SC_meeting. Jesse set up the video conferencing connections for the Industry Canada booth at the SmartCity Summit and we were able to connect with some of the First Nations during this event. As well, we worked with some of the other Smart Communities projects to connect with the folks back in their communities to show case some of the work being done across the country. Check out the picture from the trade show at http://photos.knet.ca/SmartCity_Summit.

Dan Pellerin, K-Net’s Network Manager, travelled to Thompson in Northern Manitoba to meet with community leaders from across that part of the country who are working together to put together a business case for Industry Canada’s BRAND initiative. Dan ended up on the front page of Thompson’s local newspaper for his presentation and discussions around telehealth. Thanks to Christine Penner-Polle who conducted demonstrations and provided a great explanation about the KO Telehealth work. Check out the front page story at http://photos.knet.ca/kuhkenah11/abf.

As well, John Moreau and Barb Wong made a road trip to Southern Ontario as part of their SchoolNet / RMO work, to visit a number of First Nation schools across the province in preparation for the installation of two-way satellite connections in some of these schools. Pictures of each First Nation and school are posted at http://photos.knet.ca. In total, Barb and John were able to visit fourteen different First Nations and twenty different schools during their busy trip.

As part of the FedNor funded Internet-based Training project, K-Net staff is working with Wawatay newspaper staff to develop on-line resources that the north can use in their classrooms and communities. Alvin Fiddler and Mike Dube are working to build a linux server where they hope to create an on-line library of some back issues of Wawatay.

The week of May 5 saw Les Meekis and David McKay travelling to Poplar Hill for their community ICT planning meetings. Other unfortunate events occurred that resulted in Les developing a planning tool for First Nation workers to use to report and plan their activities for the final year of the Smart Communities Demonstration project.

Dan and Adi travelled on May 5 to Pickle Lake and Mishkeegogamong for the day. They met with Pickle Lake Town Council to discuss possible connectivity solutions. While at Mish, they visited the school to take pictures of the existing connections using the DirecPC unit that will soon be replaced by a two way satellite unit until a more permanent broadband solution is installed in their community.

NORTH Network was well represented by Irene Pal who visited Balmertown and Sioux Lookout offices to meet with telehealth staff across the province. While in Sioux Lookout, Irene provided Lars and John with training in using the Remedy software for documenting and tracking network issues. As well, Irene was able to get the technicians at NORTH Network in Toronto to fix a video conferencing problem with their quality that everyone was experiencing since January of this year.

Jesse and Steven lead a three day workshop in Sioux Lookout with four staff from Seven Generations Education Institute in Fort Frances. From the training and development workshop, Seven Generations staff were able to build a Linux server, load the KO open source e-learning platform and produce a web-based e-learning environment for their institute. Check out their product at http://7generations.knet.ca  

That same week, Dan travelled to Toronto for meetings with Kativik Regional Government reps and other partners. He was accompanied on this trip by Bryan Orthner from the Smart Communities project in Northern Saskatchewan. Together they worked with John McNamara from the NORTH Network to install the new Accord bridge that will expand K-Net’s video conferencing services for network users.

On Monday May 12, representatives from RamTel came to Sioux Lookout to provide training on the installation procedures for their two way satellite systems. K-Net staff and contractors were on hand to participate in this training. As part of Industry Canada’s First Nations SchoolNet / RMO initiative, K-Net is installing 35 of these units as temporary solutions until the community develops more permanent broadband networks to serve their community members.

Finally, Dan and John joined Windigo staff member, Ernie Buswa on a trip into Cat Lake to set up their C-Band satellite dish to provide a community broadband solution once all the circuits are installed.

The final version of the "Evaluation of the Keewaytinook Okimakanak Telepsychiatry Pilot Project" dated December 21, 2002 was recently published. Keewaytinook Okimakanak now has a few bound copies of this document available but is making the publication available in a digital PDF format as well. The comprehensive evaluation was completed by the Centre for Health Services and Policy Research at Queen’s University with the principal leads in the research being Christian Keresztes (PhD, CPsych) and Ralph Shaw (MA).

The Executive Summary describes the project ....

During the period from April, 2000, through March, 2001, the Keewaytinook Okimakanak First Nations Tribal Council from Northern Ontario undertook a pilot project to provide telepsychiatry services to two of its six communities. The purpose of the pilot project and its evaluation was to assess the long-term viability of telepsychiatry as an ongoing program for First Nations communities. The evaluation undertook to assess the costs of providing the service to each of the primary stakeholders, as well as its effects on access to mental health care, the clinical process of care, health outcomes, and user satisfaction. ....

This report is divided into seven sections, a set of appendices and a bibliography of the relevant readings. Section 1 of this report has introduced the purpose of the pilot project and the broad framework and form of the evaluation.

With a brief description of Keewaytinook Okimakanak and the Nishnawbe-aski-Nation, and an overview of healthcare and mental services issues in the north, Section 2 provides context to the evaluation and will (we trust) assist the lay reader to interpret the findings, discussion, conclusions and recommendations, which follow. Section 3 undertakes to describe the Keewaytinook Okimakanak Telepsychiatry Project and the driving needs, rationale and goals which drew people to create the telepsychiatry network.

Section 4 broadly describes the two approaches used in the evaluation and specifies the questions asked to assess the pilot project.

Section 5 is a report of the cost- effectiveness analysis, describing how psychiatric service is currently being provided, how it is was provided through the telepsychiatric project, and how it might be provided through an on-going telepsychiatric programme. It addresses the impact of each on the overall healthcare resources available, including the size of their budget envelopes, expected transfers of economic burden, and relative fiscal sustainability.

Section 6 presents an analysis of the clinical service provided through the project, including an assessment of clinical outcomes resulting from the service and the clinical impact on the overall regime of mental health care of those clients who received a psychiatric consultation through the medium of video telecommunication.

Section 7 lays out the conclusions drawn from the analysis, and a set of recommendations drawn from the conclusions is presented in Section 8. Supporting documentation appears in a series of appendices to complete the report.

Fort Severn has been in a flood watch status for the last couple of days, the north end of the community has been placed on a high alert.

The river has risen about a foot each day. Some of roads leading to the coast are under water. The river is being monitored daily by our Flood coordinator Robert Thomas .

For more information visit the Fort Severn Website http://fortsevern.firstnation.ca and check out the photos.

The May 15 issue of Wawatay News contains two more news stories about the work being completed within the Kuh-ke-nah Network of Smart First Nations demonstration project. Rick Garrick is researching additional stories for future articles. If you have a story that you want to share about this project and the work that is happening in your community to get connected, please send us an e-mail.

This week's articles include:

First Nation Computer Technicians Putting Skills to Work - Margaret Lawson, McDowell Lake band member and Laureen Kaminawaish, Sachigo Lake band member, share their experiences during and after the SLAAMB employment and training program delivered by K-Net Services staff.

Turning Point Offers Interesting Viewpoints, Ideas  - Mary Alice Smith describes the development and maintenance of the Turning Point web site where people from around the world share their thoughts, stories and actions.

Various newspaper articles are being scanned and stored for reference purposes in this photo gallery.

ON Friday May 16, Students at Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School (DFCHS) will be taken to Old Fort William for a day of activities.

The cultural staff commitee hopes that  students and staff will enjoy their day.

Actuivities planned during the day include:

• Competitions Crafts
• Artist Workshop
• Wild Plants tour
• Life in a wigwam program
• Bannock baking contest
• Canoe Racing
• Log Sawing
• Wild plant useage for food and medicine.

And Many more activities...

2nd Annual Native Junior Hockey Meltdowns
Fort William First Nation Arena
May 16-18 2003

• Fort William Eagles
• Sandy Lake Storm
• Mishkeegogamang Juniors
• Eabametoong Outlaws
• Constance Lake Oji-Crees

Champions: $3,500.00
Finalists: $1,000.00

15-19 years old of age

Will submit with the final results of tournament next week.
7th Generation Athletics Circle.
Thunder Bay, Ontario

Northwestern Ontario Technology Association and Thunder Bay's Fast Forward Present:

ENABLING I.T. IN NORTHWESTERN ONTARIO
Finding Direction & Celebrating Excellence

Featuring the presentation of the second annual ITAC Community IT Hero
Awards.

Date: Thursday May 15th/2003 at the Victoria Inn, Thunder Bay
Time: 12:00pm - 2:00pm
Cost: NOTA Members $20.00, non-members $25.00, Students $15.00

Register online at www.nota.ca

Come Celebrate Northwestern Ontario's 2003 IT Heroes!

Scott Dougall - Skystream Networks
John Fullerton - Northern Supplier.com
Joan Main - Confederation College
Jesse Fiddler - K-Net

Each winner will be giving a 10 minute presentation on their IT accomplishments.

About the Awards

As part of Canada's 2003 IT Week celebrations (May 2-11 2003), the Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC), in conjunction with Industry Canada, created the Community IT Hero Award to recognize individuals who have assisted their communities in a significant way through the use or application of information technology (IT).

This awards program achieves the grassroots objective of getting communities involved in IT Week through identifying and selecting heroes who have made a significant difference in the lives of people in their communities. The selection committee consists of people from communities all across Canada including local representation.

Fort Severn First Nation will be having a Nomination Meeting and General Election for  the Chief and four Councillors.

The Nomination meeting will held on Wednesday , May 21, 2003 at the community Youth Centre starting at 7:00. The General Election is scheduled for Wednesday, June 4, 2003 at the E- Centre.

The voting will start 9:00 a.m. and run until 5:00 p.m. The newly elected officials will be announced at the local Radio Staion once the counting process has been completed

For more information, please contact the Electorial Officer : Victoria Matthews

On Monday, May 12, 2003 the community of Deer Lake was asked to evacuate their homes as the fire threatened to burn a few homes in the area.  The fire began early in the morning and burnt until the water bombers were called in late in the afternoon to put out the blaze.  For precautionary reasons, the school was also cancelled for the day when the fire was first noticed in the morning.  

A great team effort was displayed later that afternoon to save a house from the flames when community members and MNR firefighters stopped the fire from reaching the house.  Soon after, the people were informed to evacuate the Deer Lake side of town, when another fire was reported to be closing in.

The water bombers soon arrived and after roughly  an hour of dumping water on the fire and surrounding area, the fire was put out, but the community members weren't allowed to go back to their homes until it was safe to. Eventually everyone living on the Deer Lake side of town were sent back to their homes later in the evening.  

To view the pictures, check out the photogallery at http://www.deerlake.firstnation.ca

On May 27,2003 around 6 or 7 p.m. a fire destroyed our Band Office and Gymnasium. The school was saved just in time.

The Band Office was connected to the Gym. The Gym was connected to the school. As the fire was going through the Gym, the people worked to try and put the fire out. They had a bulldozer cut off the Gym from the school. This effort saved the school.

The local fire fighters helped along with the local people.

A helicopter came in and dropped some fire fighters off so they could help out too.

No one was hurt ... that was a good thing.

Everyone in the community watch as all this was happening.

We took some pictures of all this and posted them at http://photos.knet.ca/albun24.

Our community website can be seen at http://poplarhill.firstnation.ca