Economic development and broadband-enabled applications

First Nations are also using broadband-enabled applications to create employment and business opportunities. These applications can increase productivity, improve access to market and technical information, and lower transaction costs. They provide opportunities to access financial services in regions that lack physical banks.

Economic development activities are sometimes critiqued as a way to incorporate formerly autonomous local economies into global capitalism. Critics point out that inequalities and dependency relationships emerge and persist in a constant search for new markets. For these reasons, economic development initiatives that utilize broadband-enabled applications must be carefully scrutinized to ensure they meet the needs of all community members.

That said, Indigenous peoples are involved in projects that use broadband-enabled applications as platforms for economic development. Such initiatives can help stimulate local employment by supporting both online (digital media) and place-based industries like artistic production and regional tourism.

In the Inuit region of Nunavik in Quebec, carvers and musicians utilize the Internet to promote and sell their creations to buyers around the world. Broadband applications also help indigenous institutions secure greater control over resource extraction and development projects taking place in their territories. For example, in 2007 the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council in B.C. created the Tsilhqot’in Stewardship Planning Portal, a web-based land use information management and planning system designed to increase First Nation participation in land and resource management.