Media.Knet.Ca

This affects the satellite communities of:
* Fort Hope
* Webequie
* Weagamow Lake
* Slate Falls
* Sachigo Lake
* Fort Severn
* Kasabonika

Between the dates of February 22nd and March 3rd, 2003, short periods of network unavailability will occur as the sun passes directly behind the satellite.

This generally lasts about 7 to 15 minutes. Below is a chart of expected start and end times for the outages.

Thanks to SSI Micro for providing the table.

Dan Pellerin
Network Manager
K-Net Services.

This year, the Community ICT Planning Workshops are being planned and hosted by the local Smart teams in each of the Keewaytinook Okimakanak First Nations. Simultaneous sessions are being held in Fort Severn and North Spirit Lake beginning the week of February 10.

On the first evening of the week long workshop some participants from each of the two communities met to discuss the plans for the upcoming sessions. In Fort Severn, Madeleine Stoney (e-Centre Manager), Barney Turtle (Multi-Media Producer), Angus Miles (Network Technician) and Anne Koostachin (CAP Worker) have worked with the different community programs and boards to plan a full session for everyone involved in Health, Education and Economic Development activities in their community. In North Spirit Lake, Darlene Rae (e-Centre Manager), Arnold Thompson (Multi-Media Producer), Paul Campbell (Network Technician) and James Rae (CAP Worker) are coordinating the workshops for their community.

Tuesday, Feb 11, will bring the local health teams together to discuss how they wish to see ICTs used in their workplace and in the development and provision of services for community members. The folks involved providing education services and programs in the communities will come together on Wednesday. The workshops wrap up on Thursday with interested community members, businesses and leaders discussing various economic development efforts and how ICTs can be used to complement and support their efforts.

On the morning of February 6, Howard Hampton, MPP for Kenora-Rainy River and leader of the NDP, presented Ennis Fiddler with the Queen's Golden Jubilee Medal for his contributions over the years in his community and across the region.

The entire event was broadcast live over Sandy Lake community radio and webcast from the Kuh-ke-nah Network office in Sioux Lookout.

The event is archived and available for viewing from the http://smart.firstnation.ca web site. Read the entire story Queen's Golden Jubilee Medal Presentation to Ennis Fiddler, watch the 20 minute video clip on-line and leave your congratulatory comments for Ennis.

The conference was an incredible experience.  There were hundreds of people involved in Aboriginal health from all over Canada. Between 30 and 50 attended my presentation.  

I heard may good things about NAHO, that they were accomplishing a lot in a short time, and that it was seen as a dynamic, highly functional organization.  Valerie Gideon, who was working as a Health Information Policy Analyst in the Policy & Research Unit within the organization (informatics, telehealth, FNHIS, etc) has been recently promoted to Director of the Aboriginal stream within the organization.  She is very excited about our project and is promoting it as a "success" story.

We also had some adventures connecting to North Spirit Lake for the demonstration portion of my presentation.  The technicians there did not have a 3 port NT1 device to be able to use the 3 ISDN lines. So we were only able to connect at 128kbps.  The image was okay for the presentation as long as there was little movement (tough with the young person). The sound transmission was good.  

Julie and her grandson in North Spirit Lake did a great job of showing how telehealth was benefiting her community.  Audience participants came to me and told me that it was very grounding to see what accessing services can be like at a community level.

Webequie First Nation had its General Band Election in January 2003.

The elected Chief and Councillors are as follows:

Chief Gordon Wabasse
Councillor Elsie MacDonald
Councillor Roy Spence
Councillor Harry Wabasse
Councillor Mike Mekanak
Councillor Alec Suganaqueb
Councillor Cameron Shewaybick

Effective as of February 02, 2003.

The $60 million new special education funding promised by the federal government almost two years ago has been approved by the Treasury Board and may be released directly to the First Nations as early as next month. Wendy Martin-Johnson, a policy analyst with the Chiefs of Ontario, told members of the COO Education Committee, that the Department could release the funds almost immediately upon Treasury Board approval.

The funds will be distributed directly to the First Nations. Ontario’s portion of the Special Education funds will be disbursed according to the pilot project in the province with modifications to meet the needs of students. Details to follow.

The Final Report of the National Working Group on First Nations Education is expected to be released sometime in mid-February according to senior INAC officials. Few details are known. Members of the Working Group have signed confidentially agreements not to discuss the contents of the report prior to its release. Earlier this month, however, Minister Nault told the editorial board of the Edmonton Journal that one of the Working Group’s recommendations included a call for all Native schools to be administered by provincial school boards.

Over twenty NAN members attended a curriculum development workshop for the Northern Medical School (NOMS) in Sault Ste. Marie earlier this month. Participants were divided into 12 to 15 working groups, which provided ideas and ranked priorities for the new medical school. Goyce Kakegamic, Deputy Grand Chief of NAN, addressed the assembly at the last dinner of the workshop. He spoke of NAN’s on-going commitment to NOMS and reminded those in attendance that NAN’s support was conditional on three issues, (1) a role in governance, (2) a role in the development of curriculum and (3) a guaranteed number of seats for Aboriginal medical students. Earlier, Ron Wakegijig, a traditional healer at Wiky stated that he was against any special consideration for Aboriginal candidates for the medical school. NOMS will be hosting another curriculum workshop that will focus exclusively on the concerns of Aboriginal People in the North later this spring.

Funding has been provided by the Governance Secretariat (PCU) to host a NAN Education Committee Meeting on February 18, 19 and 20th. During the Education Committee Meeting, the Governance Secretariat (PCU) will provide an update on the status of their deliberations in the education jurisdiction. They are seeking the advice and counsel of the members of the NAN Education Committee. The PCU is particularly interested in the opinions of grassroots educators concerning the current process. Negotiators representing Canada will also address the members of the NAN Education Committee.

In addition, the Education Committee will hear updates on the upcoming release of Special Education funding. There will also be a discussion about the serious problems confronting all of our communities regarding the matter of secondary school funding in our territory.

The Education Unit is seeking a mandate from the NAN Chiefs to look at the feasibility of setting up a foreign exchange program for high school students in the territory modeled after the successful Nunavut Students Abroad program. As part of that program, Inuit students participate in an exchange program that takes them for six weeks to a Canadian city followed by an exchange to an African country. Participants learn valuable skills in public speaking and government. They tour various cities in Canada, Europe and Africa.

Dianne Cunningham, the Ontario Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities, has rejected calls from the Grand Chief of NAN to increase funding for the Aboriginal Education and Training Strategy (AETS). Grand Chief Stan Beardy had written to the Minister requesting additional funding for the Aboriginal Post Secondary Institutes in Ontario to deal with the Double Cohort. Currently, Ontario provides Aboriginal Post Secondary Institutes with $800,000 annually in the Start-Up and Development Fund. This is a far cry from the $7 million annually provided to Ontario’s colleges and universities to educate Aboriginal people.

If you would like your meeting or announcement included in upcoming events, email the information to bwalmark@nan.on.ca