The First Mile

Supported by the SSHRC-funded First Nations Innovation Project

Further to this testimony...In his presentation, Scott Smith from the Canadian Chamber of Commerce directly references the Northern Indigenous Community Satellite Network (NICSN) as a success story for rural broadband.

From the discussion following Smith's testimony [ available here ]

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Peter Braid Kitchener—Waterloo, ON

I think we really focused fairly widely on that. Hopefully we'll see that change.

I'm intrigued about your proposals for public-private partnerships in remote areas. I think that would be one of the answers to solving access in aboriginal communities, for example.

Are there any models or examples where a public-private partnership like this has existed in Canada or outside of the country that we could point to?

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Scott Smith

There's one in Canada, and I'll always get the acronym mixed up so I'll look it up. It's NICSN. It's Northern Indigenous Community Satellite Network. That's a clear example of what has worked well.

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Peter Braid Kitchener—Waterloo, ON

Do you know where that community is, or do you have any additional information about that particular project?

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Scott Smith

I can leave the committee with a copy of this report afterwards.

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Read more about the NICSN project here.