The First Mile

Supported by the SSHRC-funded First Nations Innovation Project

Gateway Fund (Heritage Canada)

Prior to 2010, the Department of Canadian Heritage, through Canadian Culture Online, launched a targeted call for proposals under the Gateway Fund to increase access to diverse online Canadian cultural content, including projects presented by and with content about Aboriginal Peoples (Canadian Heritage, n.d.). According to the Fund’s website: “the applicant's main role must be to serve one or more Aboriginal communities and it must be active in promoting the culture of that (those) community(ies)”. The Canadian Culture Online program ended in 2004. 

To replace the Gateway Fund (and a partnership fund associated with Canadian Culture Online), the federal government created the Canada Interactive Fund (CIF). This specific aim of this program was “to support the creation of digital and interactive Canadian cultural content, developed by official-language minority communities (OLMCs), Aboriginal and ethnocultural organizations, and other non-profit organizations”. 

This new program was cut from the federal Budget in 2012.