The First Mile

Supported by the SSHRC-funded First Nations Innovation Project

Hi everyone,

I recently did some research on the development of the National Broadband Plan in the U.S., and thought it might have some connections to the Canadian context, and to the FMCC.

The article compares the development of the National Broadband Plan with the work done at the 2009 Aboriginal Policy Research Conference (which some members of the FMCC were involved in). It summarizes different strategies that First Nations and American Indian groups have used for national-level broadband development. This article will be published in the Canadian Journal of Communication in 2011; I’ll post a link here when it becomes available.

Briefly, in the U.S., when the federal government released stimulus funding for broadband development earmarked for Native American communities, the National Congress of American Indians put through a resolution to form the Native American Broadband Association (NABA).

NABA was a kind of 'one-stop shop' that provided resources to help individual tribes apply for funding and connect with partners for broadband-related projects. It also acted as an advocate for national-level broadband development issues. To this end, NABA submitted comments (which included both critiques and recommendations) to the FCC during the development of the Plan.

One of the points raised by NABA in these submissions was that Native American tribes suffer from a lack of access to capital, in part because they cannot mortgage their lands to get third party loans. That stood out for me when I saw a recent news article that First Nations in Canada may soon be able to issue bonds to raise capital. See these stories from the Vancouver Sun and the Globe and Mail.

I wonder if anyone knows of a similar resource as NABA for First Nations (and/or others) here in Canada, with regards to the emerging Digital Economy Strategy?

And if not, is that a role the FMCC (in conjunction with other groups working in this area) might play?

Rob